After lawsuits and loss of revenue, Utah has not learned from the disaster that is AZ SB 1070.
On Monday, January 24th, the first day of the Utah Legislature, the state representatives were greeted with a sample of the year they have ahead of them. With several bills aimed at attacking brown people in the works, they have viewed the hate, division, loss of revenue by the millions as a good thing, as long as it is in the name of discrimination, which makes it worth it. A small, but effective crowd of over 100 people gathered with a common theme of "Don't Let Utah Become Arizona," was organized by members of United for Social Justice, a Utah-based activist organization.
There are new bills being put forward in states all across the country, with many of them looking to the AZ 1070 bill for guidance, but many also calling for a more moderate version, as the push back in Arizona has been devastating to the state budget, reputation and court system. Utah, somehow, and for some reason apparently sees all this as ‘collateral damage’ in the war against their gardeners in that they are pushing to take even farther a law that has already been deemed mostly illegal. But, I suppose when you look at a state that was founded in an attempt to cause a civil war against the United States, Contempt and outright ignoring federal law should not be seen as something too unusual.
Online activist group, Cuentame has assisted in placing a billboard in the commuter path on 4055 S. I-15 Northbound in Utah in an attempt to shed what should be some common sense light to a religious community asking a very simple question of why would they discriminate if their god does not? The fight is just beginning in Utah, and they do not have the numbers to push back quite as hard as those in Phoenix. However, one thing they do have that we all share everywhere is the people there are just as human there as they are in my own home and yours. I stand in spirit with my Utah brothers and sisters in the attacks against a people the state thinks will not fight back against. I ask that all of you, especially those in Arizona who are already going through a personal hell with your laws, look to your friends up north and unite, because we are all fighting the same fight.