Bobby Jindal to Issue Executive Order Allowing LGBT+ Discrimination

Bobby Jindal, hater of executive orders passed by anyone else, has decided that the only way that he and the rest of the Louisiana government are going to get through the gay scourge that insists on equal treatment and human decency is by passing an executive order allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBT+ individuals.

Jindal, Louisiana’s governor, has promised to issue the executive order because a recent bill —which would allow businesses to refuse service to anyone whose marriage they didn’t agree with —failed to pass in the state’s house. This means that business owners in LA won’t be able to claim religious freedom when asked to serve members of the LGBT+ population and must face penalties for discrimination. Jindal is having none of that and his executive order may allow businesses to discriminate against same-sex couples with impunity fairly soon.

From The Washington Post:

“We are disappointed by the committee’s action to return the Louisiana Marriage and Conscience Act to the calendar,” Jindal said in a statement, as the Times-Picayune reported. “We will be issuing an Executive Order shortly that will … prevent the state from discriminating against persons or entities with deeply held religious beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman.”

Jindal’s promise to issue the executive order is difficult to take for several reasons, chief among them the fact that he is actively promoting discrimination. But just as importantly, it’s an example of what a hypocrite Jindal is because the lawmaker has criticized executive orders in the past (that didn’t agree with his point of view).

“Granting amnesty by executive order is wrong,” Jindal wrote in a statement last year. “It will incentivize more of this illegal immigration. If the President wants to make the case that the law should be changed, he should go make the case to Congress and our people. This is an arrogant, cynical political move by the President, and it’s why so many Americans no longer trust this President to solve the problems we face.”

Supporters of Jindal’s way of thinking are delighted by his decision to issue the order and view it as them not “throwing in the towel” when it comes to allowing people to keep their religious freedom. Activists for equal rights, however, have criticized the bill that just failed as being even more dangerous than Indiana’s RFRA:

“This bill is worse than any RFRA in that it explicitly allows discrimination based on an individual’s religious beliefs about marriage,” Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow said of the bill last month. “Nobody gets to go into court for a balancing test, there’s no interpretation by a state judicial system. It flat out gives individuals a right to discriminate, period.”

Jindal, however, says this isn’t about discrimination at all, that this is all about Louisiana not being bullied. While some are saying that a bill or an executive order like the one Jindal’s issuing would cripple Louisiana’s economy, he has said he doesn’t care about any of that. His goal is to make sure that Louisiana remains a religiously free state, boycotts and loss of income be damned! Oh, and also fuck anyone who disagrees with him.