Here at liberal Brown in liberal Rhode Island, we often feel immune from the nationwide struggle with social politics. Personally, I watch the news and feel relieved to live in a place that is — relatively — socially progressive. Like last week, when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) vetoed SB 1062, a measure that would have allowed companies in the state to discriminate against people in the name of religious freedom. While the bill was broadly worded, most agree that it was a targeted measure aimed at allowing Arizona businesses to refuse service to gay individuals. Due to immense political pressure from Democrats and Republicans, Brewer rejected the proposal.
But in many ways, her veto was actually meaningless. In Arizona, the gay population is not protected against discrimination by state law, and there are still no such federal laws in place. So even with the dismissal of this bizarre piece of legislation, businesses in Arizona are still free to turn away people who are gay, are divorced, eat shellfish, have tattoos or in any other way disobey the Bible. Thank God for freedom!
SB 1062 is part of a larger, nationwide phenomenon that has been going on since the 1970s and has only accelerated in recent years. It is often called the “culture war,” but it is the strangest war I have ever seen — there is only one side. Groups on the extreme right periodically put out legislation like SB 1062, claiming that their values “are under attack.” The problem with this stance is that no one is attacking them. They are the aggressors in this fight.
Those of us who believe in marriage equality, abortion rights and non-discrimination are not attempting to change or destroy anyone’s religious beliefs. If you belong to a religion that says gay individuals should not be able to marry, go ahead and keep believing that. I won’t even mention the fact that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. But please know that your religious views have no place in our secular country’s laws. The Constitution doesn’t say anything about Christianity — your religion is not the religion of the country. So when we pass laws guaranteeing equal rights for all Americans, we’re not touching your religion. We’re preventing your religion from touching us.
And let’s drop the pretense that you are protecting “religious freedom.” Can anyone say with a straight face that these Arizona Tea Partiers would be up in arms if a Muslim business owner were sued over not serving a woman whose hair was uncovered? Their fight is about protecting their perceived right to govern America as a nation under Christianity. They are the only aggressors in the culture war. The rest of us are just trying to protect the rights of all Americans.
Remember in 2011 when the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property came to Brown to protest Rhode Island’s consideration of marriage equality legislation? As I recall, nobody went to TFP’s headquarters demanding that it, as a private group, recognize gay marriages. While Brown’s counter-protesters may not have been the most respectful group, there is no debate over who the aggressor was in our campus’ battle in the “culture war.” The marriage equality legislation, which eventually was passed and signed into law by Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17, was a defensive measure in the “culture war.” Marriage, as it relates to the government, is an economic and legal issue. To guarantee that all citizens have the right to marry is to say that no group’s beliefs are more important than our equality as Americans.
Yet for some strange reason, groups on the far right continue to view themselves as the victims of some unnamed combatant who wants to strip them of their views and beliefs. CNN’s Anderson Cooper had an incredible and revealing interview with Arizona State Sen. Al Melvin (R), who voted for SB 1062 and is running for governor. Melvin told Cooper, “All the pillars of society are under attack in the United States.” When Cooper pressed him, Melvin was unable to name one instance in which an Arizona business had its values “attacked.”
The interview also served to show the central, seductive delusion of the right wing. During his conversation with Cooper, Melvin claimed that he doesn’t know of “anybody in Arizona that would discriminate against a fellow human being.” So according to Melvin, discrimination no longer exists in his sunny, utopian state. The supreme irony of this falsehood is that, while denying the existence of discrimination, Melvin was attempting to pass a law legitimizing it.
The effort of pro-discrimination conservatives in Arizona to codify anti-gay discrimination shows us the nationwide strategy of the conservative base of the Republican Party. The crux is to attack the rights of society’s marginalized while they claim to be attacked themselves. These policies serve only to prevent those who have been marginalized over the course of our history from gaining equal treatment as Americans.
Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that these folks act this way. After all, their economic policies are designed with exactly the same aim in mind. Socially and economically, the “culture warriors” want to protect the rights of the few to control the laws and government of the many. Why? Because that’s the way it has always been.
Garret Johnson ’14 is currently attacking the pillars of American society and is a former Herald opinions editor. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays. He can be reached at garret_johnson@brown.edu.
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