Posted on 02/23/2014 12:54:52 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Many first became acquainted with George Takei as “Sulu” on the original “Star Trek” TV series, but for a number of years the actor has been an outspoken left-wing, and particularly gay-rights, activist.
On Friday Takei switched his phasers on stun and penned a pointed “Raising Arizona” letter in reaction to the state legislature’s passage of a bill many view as anti-gay.
Calling it the “turn away the gay” bill, Takei promised a ground-shaking degree of trouble, including boycotts, if the measure is signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, The Raw Story noted.
“Your taxi drivers can refuse to carry us. Your hotels can refuse to house us. And your restaurants can refuse to serve us,” stated Takei’s letter, which appears on his blog. “You’re willing to ostracize and marginalize LGBT people to score political points with the extreme right of the Republican Party.”
Proponents of the bill see it as a protection for businesses that don’t want to serve LGBT people on religious grounds, but Takei writes that “no one is fooled. When I was younger, people used ‘God’s Will’ as a reason to keep the races separate, too. Make no mistake, this is the new segregation, yours is a Jim Crow law, and you are about to make yourself ground zero.”
Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed similar legislation in 2013, but The New York Times reported that it’s not clear if she will support the latest bill.
If she does, Takei writes, “make no mistake. We will not come. We will not spend. And we will urge everyone we know–from large corporations to small families on vacation–to boycott. Because you don’t deserve our dollars. Not one red cent.”
Takei noted that after Arizona nixed celebrating the Martin Luther King, Jr.’s holiday in 1989, the NFL moved a scheduled Super Bowl from Arizona to Pasedena, costing the state $500 million. Super Bowl XLIX is slated for the University of Phoenix in Glendale in 2015.
It is called “freedom of association” and it works both ways. Look into it sometime.
I wouldn’t rent out my cabins for a KKK or Nazi gathering, for nudist conventions or Satanists or Obamacare supporters or for abortionists or NAMBLA or a Muslim gathering or a gun control strategy meeting.
I should be able to offer or refuse my services based on anything I choose. Dont like UT fans? No service for you. Dont like red shirts? No service.
But it sounds so good - “Civil Rights Act”!
The irony is that it was put in place to curb governments abuse of power. It was the federal government v. the states.
The truth is we’ve always had all the rights we need via the Constitution and our God-given rights. The CRA is redundant law that grants too much authority to bureaucrats.
I thought that fudge packer died of AIDs years ago.
Yeesh.
LOL
LOL. Memo to self — read stuff carefully before posting it.
Dittos!
Agreed. The Civil Rights Act sounds good. That’s how landmark legislation is passed nowadays.
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