Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer vetoed the anti-LGBTQ bill SB 1062 after pressure mounted by both Democratic and Republican representatives as well as pro-LGBTQ groups, including the Log Cabin Republicans.
Pressure mounted from both sides of the political aisle demanding she veto the bill, but the biggest push may have been from the NFL.
According to the NFL:
The Pro Bowl might be on the move.
NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport cited a league source Tuesday to report that active and serious discussions have taken place over moving next January’s All-Star event to Arizona, the site of Super Bowl XLIX.
It seems that the NFL was strongly hinting that they would move the inconsequential Pro Bowl to Arizona and then move Super Bowl XLIX to another city if SB 1062 was signed into law. The protest from the NFL to possibly move the Super Bowl to another state may have given the push needed to get rid of the homophobic bill. According to Rush Limbaugh, the pressure to veto the bill was from the left. Limbaugh said on his radio show according to Politico:
“soap storyline of the hour” is whether or not Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will veto SB 1062, which the state’s legislature passed last week.
“Religious beliefs can’t be used to stop anything the left wants to impose, unless they’re Muslim religious beliefs and then we have to honor those. But any other religious beliefs are not permitted,” Limbaugh said. “The left will not allow them. Now, the current thinking is that Gov. Brewer will probably veto the bill, which, you might think on the face of it will make her a hero with the news media and the rest of the left.”
Predictably, on the right, one of the biggest opponents to SB 1062 were the Log Cabin Republicans. They mounted a powerful campaign to overturn SB 1062 and I also learned that many of the Log Cabin members put aside their political differences and worked with liberal LGBTQs around the U.S. to make the veto a reality.
Still as great as this news is, will the Log Cabin members vote out haters who sponsored Senate Bill 1062? Notably, Nancy Barto, Bob Worsley and Steve Yarbrough? According to My Fox News Phoenix:
Worsley said he had a lapse in judgement last week and apologized for passing the bill. And he’s not the only one — State Senator Steve Pierce, a Republican from Prescott is also having regrets about voting for the bill. He says he went along with other Republicans on the vote, expecting it to get vetoed when it hit the governor’s desk, but that plan backfired.
Lapse in judgement? Really? At least one Republican is consistent and his name is Steve Yarbrough:
One Republican who isn’t’ backing down from this is Steve Yarbrough, from Chandler.
“I have to give credit to the opponents who have managed to turn this into some sort of a discrimination bill against gays. It couldn’t be further from that,” he said.
Yarbrough isn’t giving in to the pressure. He feels strongly that religious freedoms should be more protected in Arizona.
“People need to be able to exercise their religion freely in this state. Without having those kinds of concerns they are still going to have to meet a difficult test, we know that and that is simply what we are trying to accomplish.”
Again I ask, will the Log Cabin work to remove the homophobic authors from office? Probably not, because it was a lapse in judgement. Still it was a hard-fought battle and the rights of an oppressed people were saved…solely because the NFL had the insight to protest this stupidity. But, closer to home for me, folks at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California were happy to host the Super Bowl and the added tax revenue would have been a good thing.
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