Oh, Florida. You just love being horrible, don’t you?
It’s not enough that if you do a Google news search for “Florida man,” you end up with headlines like, “Florida man attacks karaoke DJ over mic sound, police say” and “Florida man dies after fight at strip club.”
Now if you Google a specific Florida man, Rep. Julio Gonzalez (R), you get headlines like, “Florida lawmaker drafts law to legalize refusing service to gay people” and “Venice lawmaker’s ‘religious freedom’ bill rankles gay-rights groups.”
I think “rankles” is a little tame, but, yes, there is definitely some rankling going on.
See, Florida used to be one of the worst states in the nation for LGBT people. Not only could same-sex couples not get married there, but Florida wouldn’t let gays and lesbians adopt children, either. Thanks to the Supreme Court, things have changed in the marriage department, and the adoption ban was struck down by a lower court in 2010. Alas, it’s still legal to discriminate against LGBT people in areas like employment and housing, but nobody’s perfect — amirite?
Clearly, some folks are seeing red over the rainbow, but lucky for them, the state has plenty of lawmakers who are scheming to make Florida Anita Bryant-friendly again.
And so it’s no surprise that the same kind of odious “religious-freedom” legislation we’ve seen pop up in other states in response to the pro-marriage equality Supreme Court ruling would wash ashore in Florida.
HB 401, the “Protection of Religious Freedom” bill, seeks to provide “immunity from liability for health-care facility, health-care provider, person, closely held organization, religious institution, businesses owned or operated by religious institution or private child-placing agency that refuses to perform certain actions that would be contrary to religious or moral convictions or policies.”
Gonzalez claims that there’s no ill-intentions behind the bill.
“This is not about discriminating,” he told the Herald-Tribune while someone no doubt mumble-coughed “bullshit” nearby. “This is making sure the state stops, at a narrowly crafted level, from intruding into somebody’s liberties.”
Narrowly crafted, my ass. The bill clearly seeks to cover the state in a broad cloak of legal discrimination against LGBT people in just about every area imaginable. Never mind the fact that LGBT people are “somebodies” who have liberties that are clearly being intruded upon here.
Also, hello? Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa all made The Advocate’s “2014’s Gayest Cities in America” list. Gays represent a big chunk of change in Florida’s tourism industry.
Gonzalez can’t even give a clear reason such a bill is needed.
“There have been various situations where there are increasing possibilities of subsections of society having their religious freedoms encroached on,” Gonzalez told the Herald-Tribune.
Ah, so clear! Such a “narrowly crafted” statement. I can’t even imagine what a more specific sentence would even look like.
The Herald-Tribune noted, “Gonzalez could find no instances in Florida of businesses being challenged in court for not offering products or services to same-sex couples.” Oh, but there was that one baker in Colorado, though!
According to Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, “This extreme bill doesn’t affirm existing law; it goes much further than that. In addition to churches, it would allow individuals, for-profit businesses, health-care providers, nonprofit adoption agencies and others to discriminate against anyone they want, for personal reasons.”
And that’s just what “religious or moral convictions” the bill seeks to protect over civil liberties of LGBT people: personal reasons. The fact that Florida still doesn’t include LGBT people in its anti-discrimination laws already speaks volumes. Gonzalez’s bill would turn that volume up to 11.
D’Anne Witkowski has been gay for pay since 2003. She’s a freelance writer and poet (believe it!). When she’s not taking on the creeps of the world, she reviews rock and roll shows in Detroit with her twin sister and teaches writing at the University of Michigan.