I really wish people would stop referring to this week’s hateful “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act” as affecting only LGBTs. This bill is about much more than simply LGBT.

It’s about women being unable to purchase birth control because some sanctimonious pharmacist refuses to fill it, whether it’s being used for birth control or for acne or to regulate out-of-control hormones.

It’s about a mixed-race couple in Tupelo who were evicted from their home just this past week by a bigoted landlord who claimed it was against his religion to rent to mixed-race couples.

It’s about a Christian who runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere and can’t buy more because the gas-station owner is Muslim and is offended by the little metal fish stuck to the back of his car.

And, yes. It’s about LGBT who simply want to live their lives without meddling busybodies judging them for what they do in the privacy of their own homes.

This bill does absolutely nothing to protect religious freedom. People are still free to go to church, worship and pray in a free country. They always were. This bill is about denying others’ freedom, not protecting anyone’s misguided “religious” freedom.

We will feel its effects soon enough. Several states have already announced they will not allow any nonessential employee travel to Mississippi. That translates to no conventions. No new businesses locating here. Even individual tourists will decide that, yes, every awful thing they’ve heard about Mississippi is true and will take their money elsewhere.

I’ve no doubt that the bill will be attacked and suits will be filed and it will work its way all the way up to the Supreme Court. It will be overturned. In the meantime, the tax dollars I sent in will be used to defend this indefensible bill rather than going to education, roads, etc.

And we wonder why we’re the poorest state in the Union.

 

Elodie Pritchartt

Natchez