Gov. Brewer Vetoes Arizona SB 1062

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer just

announced that she has vetoed Senate
Bill 1062, which would have allowed a special, additional
religious exemption to the state’s public accommodation laws,
meaning businesses and individuals could decline to provide goods
and services to customers on the basis of religious objections.
Though the bill didn’t directly mention gays and lesbians, it was
widely known to be a response to lawsuits or complaints filed in
other states against bakers and photographers that declined to
provide services to gay weddings due to religious objections.

Arizona, however, doesn’t include sexual orientation in its
state public accommodation laws, so citizens don’t actually have to
justify not wanting to serve gay people. Brewer pointed to the
vague wording of the law as a problem, believing it “has the
potential to create more problems than it solves.”

My own personal, cynical theory is that somebody started
realizing it would allow Muslim-owned businesses to refuse to serve
women who weren’t accompanied by men or not dressed “modestly” and
then there will be panic about Shariah Law or something. I was
actually kind of secretly hoping that would happen because it would
have been hilarious.

Anyway, this particular battle is over and I suspect much
celebration in the lesbian and gay community, even though, as I
pointed out, they still don’t have any state protection from
business discrimination. It would not be a surprise, though, if
this fight were used to push forward an addition to the state’s
public accommodation laws.