Bobby Jindal Threatens Businesses To Not ‘Bully’ Him Over Anti-Gay Marriage Bill For ‘Christians’

The New York Times just published an op-ed by Gov. Bobby Jindal that is ugly, anti-business, anti-gay, and violates the principles of the First Amendment.

When it comes to defending big business over the rights of the average citizen, Bobby Jindal is your guy. After the BP oil spill – which began five years ago this week, dumping hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf – Bobby Jindal was front and center, defending BP.

But now that he’s running for President – unannounced as of now – Jindal is working to shape his image as the defender of religious liberty and freedom, for Christians. 

Literally, for Christians.

The New York Times this morning published what appears to be an un-fact checked op-ed by the Louisiana Governor, in which he specifically states his plan to fight “discrimination against Christian individuals and businesses.”

Not, say, “people of faith,” or, “those with deeply held religious beliefs,” but “Christian individuals and businesses.”

Hopefully Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU, the American Humanist Association, and other like-minded organizations are at their keyboards reminding the 43-year old Roman Catholic Republican about the First Amendment.

So why exactly is Jindal preparing to defend these Christians (and not Muslims, Jews, or people of unaffiliated faith – or of no faith at all)?

“I’m Holding Firm Against Gay Marriage” is the title of his Times op-ed.

“I plan in this legislative session to fight for passage of the Marriage and Conscience Act,” Jindal writes. When he made the same statement in front of the Louisiana legislature last week, it received not a single moment of applause. Even the bill’s author wasn’t clapping.

That bill is so anti-gay, so sweeping, it states that no one and no business or organization in Louisiana has to recognize the legal marriage of a same-sex couple.

WATCH: Bobby Jindal Doesn’t Want ‘Special Rights’ For Gays, Does Want Them For Christians

Your employer doesn’t have to extend medical coverage to your spouse. The DMV could state your legal name, had you changed it after marrying a person of the same gender, is invalid (as happened in Florida), and hospitals might be able to deny visitation and medical decision rights from you or your husband or wife.

Louisiana already has a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but Gov. Jindal is planning a run for president, and he needs to distinguish himself from the rest of the pack.

Indiana and Arkansas saw business leaders enter the conversation over anti-gay discrimination, and they were largely the ones who successfully brought change to the hugely discriminatory bills in those states. 

Bobby Jindal has a few thoughts about that, too.

“As the fight for religious liberty moves to Louisiana, I have a clear message for any corporation that contemplates bullying our state: Save your breath.”

“Save your breath.”

Really?

Remember, when fighting for the right of Christians to discriminate against gay people, that’s “religious liberty.” When fighting for the rights of gay people to be treated equally, that’s “bullying.”

Bobby Jindal once told the GOP to “stop being the stupid party.”

Now he’s racing to be the head of it.

 

Related:

IBM Asks Bobby Jindal To Kill A Religious Freedom Bill In Louisiana

Jindal Says ‘Far Left’ Weakening 1st Amendment, Demands Lawmakers Pass ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill

Bobby Jindal Wants Duck Dynasty Star To Be His Vice President

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license