I have not read enough about the controversy surrounding Indiana's new law to comment on the legislation or the consequences of the law, but I am confident that it is being misrepresented. I have heard 3th and 4th-hand accounts of the dire consequences that are going to result now that a pizzeria will have the option of not catering a gay wedding. Because, you know, those gays sure like their pizza-catered wedding receptions.
A concept that people have a hard time with is freedom. Ask people if they want to live in a free country or if they think it's a good idea to be a free person, and I'd expect that most would say they do. Ask those same people if we should be able to discriminate, however, and you'd get a very different result.
But we discriminate all the time. We all have different tastes, pleasures, brands, flavors, opinions and beliefs. We make choices based on these and many other factors, and passing laws to pretend like we don't doesn't make it so. People should have the freedom to make choices for themselves, and one of those choices is the types of people we want to associate with.
Freedom of association is hard one for a lot of people, and I think the reason that it's hard is because people generally want to be good people, or at least they want to be thought to be good people. But discriminating doesn't make one a bad person. Suppose a member of the KKK went into a black-owned trophy shop and requested a trophy for "KKK Member of the Month". Should the owner be allowed to refuse? Of course. Admittedly, it's a stupid example since the KKK member wouldn't want to patronize the black-owned business in the first place. Reverse the roles in this scenario, and suddenly a lot of people change their point of view. Why?
The reason is because of false perceptions people have of the consequences which would result from the lack of laws. "If we did away with speed limits, everyone would drive over 100 miles per hour all the time!" No they wouldn't. People don't obey speed limits for the most part anyway, and they would continue to drive at a speed they feel comfortable with. (Although in a speed-limitless world, I would have to go buy another Hayabusa). "If we did away with food stamp programs, people would starve to death!". No they wouldn't. Charities would step in to fill the void for the people that were truly in need of assistance, and do a far more effective job of it than the government does.
There are quite a few topics in which seemingly the only two options are: A) Government provides the solution. B) Everyone dies.
People would manage things without laws regarding discrimination and a whole host of other things without the overlords dictating from on high. Of course, without the ability to explain in greater detail, the reactionary do-gooders of today would straw-man the hell out of this position. "Oh, so you want slavery re-instituted is what you're saying?"
A fictional business that would discriminate against a group of people in today's world wouldn't last against competition that didn't. Imagine a shop owner displaying a sign that declared the refusal of service to...black people for example. It wouldn't last. Nobody would want to shop at such a place. This is why we don't need these types of laws. No matter the nightmare scenarios that are sure to be drawn at the suggestion of such a proposal, that type of business model just wouldn't work today, and those nightmare scenarios would never happen.
The Indiana fiasco is just that, a fiasco. Celebrities, politicians and various nanny-state leftists will line up and trip all over themselves trying to show how much more they care than the other guy. The open-minded are so open-mined that they must force people they don't agree with out of business.
The Governor of Connecticut has banned travel to Indiana for state employees in the wake of the Indiana law. Oh how big of him! He cares so much for the gay people of Indiana! What if he could ban everyone from doing business there? That would sure show them! But what about the gay business owner that would suffer as a result? That is no matter to be considered, we have political posturing to do for the sheep that will vote for me in my next election. Or something.
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