Arkansas Wants To Make Hate Legal

When I was a kid, I remember saying to my Grandmother one night as we sat down to dinner: “I hate brussel sprouts!”

And my Grandmother replied, “Never say ‘hate;’ you don’t ‘hate’ anything.”

Maybe Arkansas should have met my grandmother. See, last week, the Arkansas Senate — the GOP-controlled ­Senate — passed a sweeping bill that bans every single city, town, municipality, hamlet, burg, rest stop, from passing or enforcing non-discrimination ordinances.

Yes, you are not allowed to tell anyone they cannot discriminate; in other words, as my grandmother rolls over in her grave, you can ‘hate’ anyone you choose. And that is apparently going to happen because Arkansas’ Republican Governor — of course he’s Republican, they trade in discrimination — Asa Hutchinson is expected to sign it.

The legislation is billed as an "emergency" bill and is being trumpeted, and by that I mean, lied about, as a commerce bill, designed to make doing business across the state easier, and more inviting to out-of-state companies.

Companies who like their discrimination above board, I’m guessing. According to GOP Congressman Bob Ballinger:

“This bill creates uniformity for business, and citizens for that matter, that our employment laws will be the same throughout the state. There are some things on a statewide basis we deal with all the time, such as murder and fraud — a variety of things that need to be uniform.” 

That all sounds like traditional GOP mumbo jumbo, worthy of a Mamma Grizzly Bore™ word soup, but what this new law will actually do is strike down all local ordinances that prohibit discrimination, effectively erasing any and all protections that were once afforded to, well, The Gays.

Bart Hester, the Republican Arkansas State Senator sponsored this new Hate Bill because he is "infuriated" that local cities and towns were passing legislation to protect their LGBT citizens from being discriminated against in housing, employment, and education.

Hester, like most of the GOP, and nearly every asshatted, wingnutted, goose-stepping politician in Arkansas, hate The Gays and will do whatever they can to keep our community down.

Thanks Arkansas.

via NCRM