And SB 1062 – the “religious freedom” bill – goes down. It’s too bad really for each passing day that the bill existed was a boon for LGBT rights.
All in about one week since it was approved by the Arizona Senate. The religious freedom bill caused so much negative press and eyerolls that even the legislators that pushed it through in the first place were struggling to explain themselves and are now hoping for a veto.
No, really, you should read how silly some of the Arizona GOP is.
Anyways, the veto came down from the Governor Jan Brewer last night – which was about a week too late. A lot of damage has been done to Arizona, but apparently Brewer wanted to see how it played out even though she vetoed a similar bill last year. Huh.
While Brewer and crew were busy considering all sides, hundreds of companies rose in opposition to the bill, including these biggies: Apple, American Airlines, Marriott, Intel, Salesforce.com, PetSmart, Yelp, McDonalds, Target, and Delta Air Lines.
Salesforce CEO and President Marc Benioff threw this haymaker on Twitter: “If this bill passes we will never do another corporate event in Arizona.”
Arizona’s two Republican senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, tweeted their opposition to the bill.
In addition to massive protests across Arizona, dozens of local businesses came out to denounce the bill in their own ways, and of course, a petition was created on change.org.
Professional sports teams? The Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury came out against the bill. Major League Baseball invoked Jackie Robinson in their response, you know talking about groundbreaking stuff like “principles of respect, inclusion and acceptance” whatever that means.
The NFL? The Cardinals released a statement against the bill then the Super Bowl Committee who is planning the 2015 Superbowl in Arizona spoke out against the bill, saying the law would “deal a significant blow” to the state’s economy.
The NFL was looking to move the Super Bowl out of Arizona. And remember, the NFL moved the Super Bowl out of Arizona because the state voted down Martin Luther King Day as a holiday back in 1993.
Arizona is like that potty-mouthed neighbor kid that keeps walking into the wall, falls down, blames the wall, gets up, only to walk into the wall again. Then cries for help from their big brother, Florida.
Oh you know, blah blah blah Microsoft, Home Depot, American Express, Wal-Mart, Go Daddy, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America all just publicly opposed the bill too. What say you, Arizona?
Stop wasting our time and energy, Arizona, we have other things to do.
Well, what about those that support the bill? Doesn’t anyone care about religious freedom anymore?
Besides those 17 (now 14) really sharp Arizona’s legislators – a search for any business that appreciated SB1062 included a local farm, a couple real estate agents, a professional photographer, and 6 people on Twitter (no citation).
[UPDATE] My mistake, one of the real estate agents that supports the law is also the same professional photographer.
