Somewhere in his fevered, gumbo-saturated brain, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal thinks he has a chance to be President one day, perhaps as soon as 2016. But then he goes on a show like “Meet the Press,” spouts off some of his patented stupidity, and we all realize what he refuses to admit: Jindal will never ever be Presidential material.
Speaking to Chuck Todd earlier today, Governor Jindal was asked about “religious freedom” laws such as the ones in Arkansas and Indiana which have made so much news this week. Jindal, as you might expect, decided to take the opportunity to say he’s perfectly cool with businesses refusing to serve members of the LGBT community. Jindal declared:
“I don’t think, certainly, that there should be discrimination against anybody in housing and employment. That’s not what my faith teaches me. I don’t think that’s appropriate, and I think the good news is that our society is moving in a direction of more tolerance.”
Well, that’s certainly refreshing to hear from a member of the Republican Party, but then Jindal did the Baton Rouge backstep and decided to see if he could have it both ways on the issue with this:
“My concern about creating special legal protections is that historically, our country, we’ve only done that in extraordinary circumstances, and it’s not evident to me–it doesn’t appear to be one of those moments today.”
No one is asking for special legal protections, Bobby. Federal law prohibits discrimination that is based on race, religion, national origin, gender, age, or disability. The LGBT community, however, can be discriminated against for their sexual orientation or their gender identity. As people keep trying to explain to the GOP, no one who supports LGBT equality wants “special rights,” just the same rights everyone else enjoys. Is that really asking for too much?
Jindal, however, couldn’t resist giving a big wet and sloppy kiss to the right wing of his party with this claptrap:
“If it is a sincerely held religious belief that it offends the owner’s beliefs to participate in that wedding ceremony, absolutely. I don’t think the government should be able to force somebody to contradict their own sincerely held religious beliefs to participate in a wedding ceremony, and that used to be a bipartisan consensus.”
But that is the very definition of discrimination, Governor! Back in the Fifties and Sixties, white people, especially in the South used to pontificate endlessly about how the Bible said black Americans were inferior to whites. But it was wrong, immoral, inhumane, and ignorant then, and the hatred of a person for their sexual orientation in today’s America is just as wrong.
I have a message for the GOP: The civil rights issue of the 21st Century–LGBT rights–is here. And you’re on the wrong side of the issue, and of history.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.