Gaysplaining Indiana

If the religious freedom law in Indiana has nothing to do with gay people, as some of its supporters claim, why is this happening now? Why did this law arise at this particular moment in history? Laws don’t form in a vacuum. Legislators sponsor and pass them because of some real or perceived need to defend a principle or outlaw something immoral or unfair. As the issue of gay marriage arises in state after state, and with this summer’s Supreme Court decision, I cannot believe that this law has nothing to do with businesses refusing to serve gay weddings.

As I’ve been reading, many of the lobbyists who sponsored the bill and stood with Gov. Pence as he signed it have said the law would protect Christian businesses from catering weddings. These lobbyists are all from groups like Family Focus or Yay! For the American Family or whatever. The names of these groups seem harmless but I think they’re insidious. I support the traditional American family like these groups do but I also support many different types of families and these groups do not.

I read somewhere that the people behind this law are afraid that the government would force churches to marry gay couples but the Constitution already protects churches from that. Houses of worship can’t be forced to facilitate or celebrate gay marriages (they have no obligation to marry straight couples if they don't agree with the union either) but baking a cake or putting together a flower arrangement is not a celebration. It’s just a business transaction. The guy who baked our wedding cake just dropped it off and left. We paid him. You’re not going to go to hell over some fondant and frosting.

I don’t care if people oppose gay marriage because my husband and I don’t have to care what they think anymore. Oppose it until you’re blue in the face. What do you want us to do, draw an asterisk on our wedding license? But there is a difference between speech and actions and those actions can sometimes be constrained by the law. If you really don’t like the fact that gay people are married, the action to take is not to marry someone of the same sex. But please don’t obstruct those of us who want to.

This is a catch-22 because if people insist that the law is not specifically aimed at gays, they should be open to the idea that they could find themselves barred from some businesses, too. Can you imagine if a business owner cited his religious beliefs for not catering a Christian wedding (which I think would be just as unfair)? There would be a run on all the hardware stores in Indiana so offended people could buy nails to hang themselves on the cross. We’d never hear the end of it and it would come from some of the same people who had no problem with this law until it applied to them. Only then would it be a grave injustice.

That’s precisely why we shy away from these broad “I don’t have to do things I don’t believe in” laws in the United States: Because laws like this can target someone you don’t like but they can also target you.