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BARRETT RAINEY Second Thoughts |
“No one should watch sausage or laws being made.â€
That old joke has been around for many, many years. It was probably funny when first used. But time and wide-spread law making incompetence have proven at least the second part of the phrase too often very unfunny. The latest example of that has cropped up in the Idaho Legislature.
Idaho is often called the nation’s “most red state.†It’s probably not. I’d call it a “mooshy crimson.†But the current, right wing edition of the Republican Party has been in nearly complete control for a long, LONG time and shows no signs of fading. Want to get your collie into Idaho politics? Call it a Republican and it’ll get elected to something.
Comes now proof that not all the players in the political game of Idaho legislative politics have 52 cards in their personal decks. This week’s award to someone a few cards short - who’s managed to wrap homophobia, paranoia and irrational thought into legislative sausage - is one Rep. Lynn Luker. Republican? Certainly. By today’s standard. Responsible and wise? Not by any measurement known to rational people.
In what he calls a “pre-emptive strike†for God-knows-what, Mr. Luker has scraped two bills off the sludge at the bottom of the legislative barrel - HB426-HB427 - deciding citizens of Idaho should stand squarely behind new laws codifying homophobia and discrimination. Absolutely. Put ‘em on the books.
One would keep the state from revoking any professional license if the licensee withholds services - or refuses services - on the basis of a “personally held religious belief.†So, if a cab driver cited “personal religious belief†for not transporting a gay couple in sub-freezing temperatures, said driver could just say “My religion keeps me from taking these people in out of the cold.†And that would be that. They might freeze to death by the side of the road, but the cabbie would - in his head - be square with God. And - in Mr. Lukerls world - the State of Idaho.
Luker’s other badly tarnished gem of ridiculousness is in a similar vein. It would amend the Idaho Religious Freedom Act to allow an employer to fire someone for being gay, then hide behind a claim of “religious belief.†“I can’t abide those people,†he/she could say. And that would be that.
Luker - who somehow has his own license as a lawyer - says he’s worried about the future and wants his legislation adopted now because “this is pre-emptive - the issue is coming.†He cited a Gresham, Oregon, baker sued because he wouldn’t bake a wedding care for a gay couple. And the New Mexico photographer who wouldn’t take pictures of a gay wedding, arguing “free speech†and some sort and “artistic freedom†- whatever that is in this instance.
Rep. Luker’s backup in this trashy effort is something called “Cornerstone Family Council Advocacy Group.†A spokesman for the “council†claims governments are increasingly passing or interpreting laws to “keep people from living their faith†- a double standard against people of “traditional religious faiths.†(more…)
