If the answer is "yes" then you've been paying attention to things, which is good, but you've probably been lied to, and that's bad. There's been a big stink about the state passing a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Some folks think it opens the door to discrimination towards gays. That's completely false, but the people making the claims are really loud, so despite facts and stuff they must be right. Right?Well, no. If you have any questions about the RFRA, HERE is a great article breaking the whole thing down.
Now, if you're wondering why this law got passed to begin with and doesn't the First Amendment of the Constitution already cover that, good for you! Here's the skinny, around 1990 the Supreme Court made a ruling that really took the guts out of the First Amendment. It set things up so the if Compelling State Interests came into conflict with Religious freedom, the scales were tipped way to heavily towards the State. There are times when a State's Interests should trump Religious freedom.
Example: if your religion calls for human sacrifice the State can stop you because of that whole murder being against the law thing.
But the 1990 case created a problem and everyone got together to fix it. Religious groups, the ACLU, and many secular groups got together to create the Federal RFRA which Bill Clinton signed in 1993 as one of his first acts as President. Balance was restored and everything was great.
Then it was interpreted that the Federal RFRA only applied to Federal Laws and not State laws in 1997. Since then 20 States have passed their own RFRAs including Illinois which Barack Obama supported when he was State Senator, and Virginia which current Governor McAuliffe must not be aware of since he's been taking a couple of jabs at Indiana. Also note that the link provided about the State RFRAs does reference the current situation in Indiana but also states that these laws have NEVER been used successfully to discriminate against homosexuals.
So, why is there a problem with Indiana? Its been a perfect storm if ridiculousness. I wrote before about White Knights who run about the internet typing away for their causes. It seems the Tinfoil Hat Brigade merged with the Magenta Lantern Corp and seeing the law only through the prism of one issue created a whole conspiracy theory around it. I do wonder if the Governor that passed it had been a Democrat if there'd be the same fuss. I doubt it. The false narrative is set that Republicans are bigots. Then along come the Latter Day Atheists banging their drum that religion equals bigotry. So we had one target that all three groups of nutters could focus on. Then a bunch of other people jump on board because it fits with their person narrative of how the world is despite facts to the contrary.
Of course the irony here is that all their screaming just shows who is really prejudiced. (Hint: they're the ones doing the screaming.)
And now the Indiana Governor has to react because he has people running around upset because they've bought into a lie. This could have been avoided if people would have read the bill and done a little research instead of just giving into knee-jerk emotionalism.
Moral of the story: do your homework.
