Human Rights Campaign Took A Red Pen To Jindal’s Religious Freedom Op-ed

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks during the Homeschool Iowa's Capitol Day, Thursday, April 9, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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Instead of a statement bashing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) for his op-ed defending controversial legislation aimed at blocking the government from punishing businesses over opposition to gay marriage, the pro-gay rights advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign took a red pen to Jindal’s piece in The New York Times.

HRC replaces parts where Jindal uses phrases like “big business” and “radical left” and replaces those phrases with “the business community” and “70% of Americans” instead.

In another paragraph the HRC replaces “left wing ideologues who oppose religious freedom” with “Americans who oppose discrimination.”

Over and over again HRC, in the mark-up, points out that business leaders have signaled opposition to bills like the Louisiana Marriage and Conscience Act. A senior executive at IBM recently sent a strongly worded letter warning signing the bill into law could create a hostile work environment for some employees.

The response by the HRC hits on some of the key arguments opponents of the bill in question, which Jindal has repeatedly said he supports, have said —that the bill effectively opens the door to discrimination against gay people and that the majority of Americans oppose it.

When Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) faced national criticism for pushing another religious freedom bill that aimed to block the government from forcing businesses to serve gay customers because of religious objections, the governor, couldn’t come up with examples justifying the law.

Read the HRC’s markup below:

Oped Markupusethis by Daniel Strauss

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