Arizona’s anti-gay bill has been vetoed

All right, collective exhale, everyone. The fucking thing is dead. Dead and gone!

On the off chance you’ve been avoiding any and all news sources for the past week, Arizona has been mulling over a bill that would allow business owners to refuse service to gay patrons or anyone else on the grounds of religious belief. So potentially, a lobster shack could bar service to a gay couple over Leviticus, and not only would it be perfectly legal, but the irony would be completely lost on them.

Thankfully, common sense has prevailed, as the bill has been vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer.

According to The Globe and Mail, Brewer noted that the bill had “potential to create more damage than the problems it purports to solve.” She also noted that due to the vague language of the bill and the wildly varying nature of personal beliefs, the whole thing could have had “unintended and negative consequences.” I’m pretty sure the intended consequences would have been pretty negative too, but that’s just me.

Well good news, everyone! We dodged a bullet. But really, thank god we don’t have anything like that up here, right? I mean, could you imagine if we had politicians up here using blustering anti-gay rhetoric in order to appeal to far-right voters? It’s a good thing we don’t have anyone like that!

Keep Reading

Job discrimination against trans and non-binary people is alive and well

OPINION: A study reveals that we have a long way to go to reach workplace equality for trans and non-binary people

The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts

OPINION: Melissa Lantsman’s and Eric Duncan’s refusals to call out their party’s transphobia is a betrayal of the LGBTQ2S+ community

Over 300 anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills have been introduced this year. This doesn’t mean we should panic

OPINION: While it’s important to watch out for threats, not all threats are created equally. Some of these bills will die a natural death

Xtra’s top LGBTQ2S+ stories of the year

The best and brightest—even most bewildering—stories from a back catalogue brimming with insight