Source: WASHINGTON -- Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D) will sign an executive order on Monday barring state-funded travel to Indiana because of the state's new law that could allow businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers for religious reasons.
Malloy announced his plans on Twitter.
Malloy's move would make Connecticut the first state to boycott Indiana over its Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Gov. Mike Pence (R) quietly signed into law last week. The law allows businesses in the state to cite religious beliefs as a legal defense. Opponents fear it offers legal protection for businesses to refuse service to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
A Pence spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two cities, San Francisco and Seattle, have imposed similar bans in response to the law. Businesses have also retaliated. Angie's List is pulling a campus expansion project in Indianapolis, and the CEO of Salesforce, a $4 billion software corporation, announced plans to "dramatically reduce our investment" in the state because of the law.
Twenty states have RFRA laws, but Indiana's law is substantially different. While other state RFRAs apply to disputes between a person and a government, Indiana's law goes further and applies to disputes between private citizens. That means, for example, a business owner could use the law to justify discrimination against customers who might otherwise be protected under law.
Indiana's law also differs from the federal RFRA, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993, for the same reason.
Last month, 30 law professors with expertise in religious freedom explained why the Indiana law could lead to "confusion and conflict."
The Indiana law could result in "employers, landlords, small business owners, or corporations, taking the law into their own hands and acting in ways that violate generally applicable laws on the grounds that they have a religious justification for doing so," reads their letter. "Members of the public will then be asked to bear the cost of their employer's, their landlord's, their local shopkeeper's, or a police officer's private religious beliefs."
That's in sharp contrast to states like Connecticut, which has an RFRA but one that pertains only to religious institutions, not private establishments. And unlike some other states, Connecticut also doesn't permit discrimination based on sexual orientation in any private establishment or institution.
Malloy would overreact and boycott an entire fucking state. The guy is such a dweeb. Wake up bro, it's not that big of a deal. It's not like the law in Indiana says no gays allowed. It says businesses can use religion as a legal defense. Hey people freaking out about this law, you ever think a business might have a certain set of values? If some of those values are religious in nature, is that not allowed? Also, not every single religious person is discriminatory against gays. Not trying to get political here, but since my home state is one of the more idiotic ones out there, I might have to. Liberals have it worked into their brains that every single Christian hates gay people. Hey, you ever think to yourself that maybe you're looking a little too much into this law. Preeeetty sure it was designed to do just what it says. Allow businesses who want to use religion as legal defense to do just that. Do people seriously read a law like that and think to themselves "OMG Indiana hates gay people, gotta boycott them"? Oh, how it would suck to have the brain that thinks that. I fucking guarantee some kumquat is gonna go into a clothing store in Indiana and announce he's gay and the guy at the counter won't give one single fuck and the gay guy is gonna try to say he wouldn't let him shop in the store because he's gay. That's how the world works in 2015. Just fabricate bullshit and turn it into a story or a lawsuit or a protest or a riot. Fucking people man.
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