[Vision2020] April Fool's Day Joke?

Thu Apr 2 22:23:33 PDT 2015

Sexual preference?  Just speaking from my personal experience, I had a huge a crush on my gorgeous preschool teacher when I was 4 years old.  So from my earliest memories, women were beautiful and men were overwhelmingly butt ugly except for maybe the few ripped gay guys who actually seemed to care about their appearance.  I wouldn't really call gayness or straightness (or anything else with the 360 degree sphere) a preference.  My feeling is that it's just more of configuration or an attribute.  So I'm fine with 'sexual orientation' being listed because it's a more accurate term.

In regard to cake bakers and sign makers, I don't think it's really all that difficult of a problem to solve.  If you sell cakes or makes signs and someone asks you to write something objectionable on it or decorate it in some way that offends you, I don't see why you still can't just sell them a generic cake or a generic sign and I'd find it hard to believe there would be any *legal* repercussion to this.  You'd still be subject to fallout of potentially bad publicity especially when the baker down the street puts a sign up in his bakery that says 'we don't discriminate against anyone' and you don't follow suit implying that you do discriminate.

Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 11:14:08 -0700
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] April Fool's Day Joke?
From: paul.rumelhart at gmail.com
To: jenwhitney at gmail.com
CC: scooterd408 at hotmail.com; vision2020 at moscow.com

I think these bills are bad ideas, but not for the same reasons as most of you out there, probably.  From what I can tell, sexual preference is not a protected class in either Arkansas or Indiana, even before these bills were introduced.  Therefore, there is nothing stopping someone from refusing service for some reason related to sexual preference, even without this bill being signed into law.  These bills are nothing but grandstanding by those lawmakers towards their constituents.  I'm not displeased that it's backfiring on them.

I would like to see a push to include sexual preference as a protected class in those states, rather than just a bunch of objections to their current legislation. 

I am sympathetic to the idea that someone with firm convictions shouldn't have to conduct business in a way that they find immoral.  That goes just as much for both the people who object to making wedding cakes with two grooms on them and the ones that don't want to have to make a "God Hates Fags" sign.

Paul

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 10:19 PM, j Whitney <jenwhitney at gmail.com> wrote:
Hey Visionaries, 
Thankfully, this is definitely real.  I'm currently living in Little Rock and was outside his office when he gave the press conference in which he said he would not sign HB1228 as is and asked the legislature to recall the bill.  Republican Representatives are currently scrambling to find a way to amend it, so it will be signed.  We're still not sure if they have time to do so before sine die.  Hutchinson also said he's considering an executive order that would protect the LGBT community from workplace discrimination, but made no promises.  
One of the best signs I saw at the rally yesterday was "Gov. Hutchinson, be our Rockefeller, not our Faubus".  For those of you who are unenlightened, as I was before moving to Arkansas, Faubus was the Governor that decided to take a stand against the US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education and NOT desegregate. Eisenhower was forced to send in the national guard to enforce it.  Faubus is now known as one of the biggest embarrassments in Arkansas history.  (Tom Cotton's recent letter is fast reaching this status as well, and may out shine Faubus because of the world-wide exposure.)  Unfortunately, Faubus was a democrat, so that's sad, but he was trying to capitalize on the rampant racism of good ol' boys back in the day.  Hutchinson is acting similarly with the fundamentalist crowd, but was shooting himself in the foot with all the attention Indiana's Pence is currently receiving.  Hutchinson wants to keep his job and luckily, as at least one foot in reality enough to realize signing this bill into law would be a death sentence.
Interestingly, Walmart came out in opposition to this bill.  With their recent wage hike, I'm beginning to wonder if they've turned a corner, but only time will tell.  Since Walmart's home base is Arkansas, a personal letter from the CEO to Hutchinson asking him to veto the bill, was likely a deciding factor.  
One final side note that you all won't hear in the news is that signing HB1228 into law was the agreed upon payment for Hutchinson forcing Republican lawmakers to "fall on their swords" and continue to fund medicaid expansion (known as the Private Option) in Arkansas.  Governor Mike Beebe did a great job bringing it to Arkansas and with the huge benefit Arkansans have seen, Hutchinson would be a fool not to continue it, despite the fervent opposition his colleagues have to it.  I was frankly surprised that he won't be signing HB1228, but am also worried about what the new payment will be in its place.
Yay for another day of equal rights for all in Arkansas!  Let's hope Gov. Pence sees reason and provides some protection for the LBGT community in Indiana.  
My best to you all back in Idaho.  I sure miss it. 
Jennifer

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 9:46 PM, Scott Dredge <scooterd408 at hotmail.com> wrote:

Is this real or is it an April Fool's Day joke?  Seems under typical circumstances that Asa Hutchinson would have gleefully signed a bill legalizing gay bashing.

'Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson backed away Wednesday from his promise to 
sign a controversial religious-objections bill, bowing to pressure from 
critics of the measure, including his own son and some of the state's 
biggest employers, who say the legislation is anti-gay.'

http://news.yahoo.com/arkansas-governor-urges-changes-religious-objection-bill-154925529.html

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