i think there s a lot of people still unclear about this. this was legislation that was to clarify ore amend a law that was on the books for 15 years. and i even saw one of the supporters of this bill said, i don t understand why paraphrasing, i don t understand why the gay rights community is so upset about this. if you think this makes it all right to discrimination against gay people, well, it already is okay to discriminate against gay people. what was at stake here legally? even the statistic that you brought forward of the 75%, that was about plimt discrimination. and this bill and what people were concerned about related to public accommodations. and the mayor mentioned that his city s law included public accommodations. in a state like arizona that doesn t have across the state public accommodations, which means when you go to the
maryland. and what s really particularly good is the law sometimes proceeds the policy discussion. i mean, i watched your show earlier and i thought one of the great thing about that whole arizona situation is how many people did not realize that right now it s actually legal for a restaurant or a place of public accommodation to discrimination against gay people, that s actually legal under the constitution of states and the fade rale government. so this dialogue is actually a positive one, i think. here s the flip side and this is what i was sort of thinking about this week. supporters of gay marriage i think presumably in some states where there s a marriage ban on the books would cheer in the attorney general of that sate said i m not going to defend this in court anymore. but look at the store friday from wisconsin when scott walker first bam governor. he and the republican attorney general announced that they were going to refuse to defend a lawsuit aimed at stopping
forward to ban discrimination statewide like you ve dpun in phoenix or are politics going to get in the way. unfortunately this bill that shouldn t have gotten to the governor s desk did. it s not reflective of the people in our city or our state. h is a wonderfully diverse community here np arizona. we love our diverse population. these bills send a wrong message about the state of intolerance here in arizona. corporate america is way, way ahead of government on these issues. very chewly every single fortune 500 company has passed company policies that are supportive of all of their employees, including their lgbt employees. so in the case of phoenix passing our ordinance, while i may seem progressive, we re just catching up to corporate america. we know in modern society you have to do what you can do
lesbian couple inside a bar in downtown phoenix was asked to leave after sharing a kiss. one of the women went home and posted the story on her facebook page and it became a big story. one year later, one year ago this week, the city council in phoenix passed on ant discrimination ordinance banning that kind of discrimination in local establishments. three other cities in arizona, tucson, flag staff and scottsdale, also enacted laws banning discrimination against the lgbt community. but for the two thirds of arizona abs who live outside the city there no protections on the books. and that ill struts something of brewer s veto seemed to have obscured. sexual orientation is not a protected class under state law in arizona.
victim of the wedge issue. gay rights used to be a wedge issue in which the republicans could bring it up and force us to choose. with the progress in the country over that, that s somewhat shifted. i am very pleased that people like representative orr are standing up and that s the battle that s still going op there will be a number of primaries this year between mainstream, conservative republicans who don t believe in discrimination but believe in conservative economic princip s principles. we put this statistics up in the first block when you ask about the question of discrimination against lgbt americans, it s just assumed that s illegal. when you ask a question about gay marriage you ll find there s majority support in plenty of supports. and there s many states in where there eats not majority support. yet, that was the issue that the