Tuesday, June 16, 2015

NC Lt. Gov. Supports Law Allowing Government Discrimination

There seems to be a difference of opinion between the governor of North Carolina and his lt. governor, both of whom are Republicans. Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed the bill, which the legislature then overrode, but Lt. Gov. Dan Forest is publicly supporting the law with absurd, contradictory arguments.

Dan Forest, the Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina, joined Craig James on the Family Research Council’s “Washington Watch” program yesterday to discuss a new law in his state that allows public officials to temporarily stop performing marriages if they want to avoid marrying a same-sex or even an interracial couple. Forest supported the bill, which the legislature passed over the veto of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

Forest said that far from being unconstitutional, the new law is actually “upholding the Constitution” because the legislature is the one that assigns duties to magistrates. He added that the law “doesn’t discriminate against anybody, instead it does just the opposite” by supposedly protecting the religious freedom of state magistrates.

As usual, conservatives refuse to apply their arguments consistently. By his reasoning, the Supreme Court ruling to overturn bans on interracial marriages also must be wrong. And the idea that the law does not discriminate because it allows government officials to discriminate is simply laughable.

“You’re not telling them they can’t have a ceremony,” Forest said, “it’s just protecting the religious beliefs of those who don’t want to do it.”

“So, really what this is from the other side, from the left, this is saying that ‘we are not tolerant of you, we’re not tolerant of your beliefs, you do not fit into our great diverse rainbow of diversity here. We will accept everybody but Christians.’” Forest added. “And so that’s really what’s going on here, is it’s very focused on Christians only and so that’s why we’re seeing these issues.”

No, it isn’t “very focused on Christians.” Christians just happen to be the ones demanding the right to discriminate here, just like they did with blacks when the Civil Rights Act was passed.

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