Arkansas wants to attract businesses by allowing them to discriminate against gay people
The Republican campaign against gay rights continued last week, when Arkansas legislators passed a bill barring local governments from protecting gay people against discrimination.
It’s called the “Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act,” and it’s written in the key of dog-whistle. The bill contends that, in order for the state to attract businesses, each of its cities and counties must follow the same rules about who they permit discrimination against.
Practically speaking, the bill would prevent any city or county from extending civil rights protections to gay people—as the town of Fayetteville, Ark. tried to do last year. Residents there scrapped the law through a ballot initiative in December. But that same day, State Sen. Bart Hester (R ) tweeted out that regardless of how the vote turned out, “the AR legislature will pass legislation to repeal this type of ordinance. I suspect with a super majority.”
Hester’s bill, SB 202, has now been submitted to Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R). The governor issued a statement on Friday saying that he will let the bill pass, but he won’t sign it, on the principle that he is “concerned about the loss of local control.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/02/17/arkansas-wants-to-attract-businesses-by-allowing-them-to-discriminate-against-gay-people/?tid=rssfeed
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