This morning Nevada Assemblyman Erven Nelson decided to withdraw his "Religious Freedom" bill and just a few hours ago Senator Joe Hardy pulled his own identical bill, saving Nevada from joining Arkansas and Indiana in the human rights hall of shame.
From the Las Vegas Review Journal:
Nevada legislation criticized as giving businesses and corporations a license to discriminate against gay customers appears to have fizzled in light of nationwide outrage over similar “religious freedom” bills in Arkansas and Indiana.
Silver State officials opposing the bill in Carson City gained a high-profile backer late Thursday.
“The Governor believes that this bill is not necessary because the interests of all Nevadans are protected under current law,” Mari St. Martin, spokeswoman for Gov. Brian Sandoval said Thursday night.
Even the bill sponsors are backing away from it.
“After careful reflection and consultation with legislative counsel, I have determined that Nevada’s Constitution already contains adequate safeguards and protections for the civil liberties of Nevada’s citizens, and further legislative emphasis of these rights would be unnecessary,” freshman legislator and Assembly Judiciary Committee Vice Chairman Erven Nelson, R-Las Vegas, said Thursday.
The reaction to Indiana’s legislation was a factor in deciding to withdraw the bill, Nelson said.
“We obviously do not want to have happen in Nevada what’s been threatened to happen in Indiana as far as a boycott and things like that.”
Nelson was among a handful of Republicans who sponsored Assembly Bill 277 and Senate Bill 272, matching bills that seek to establish the Nevada Protection of Religious Freedom Act. Assembly Government Affairs Committee Chairman John Ellison, R-Elko, and Sen. Joseph Hardy, R-Boulder City, who is president pro tempore of the Senate, were also sponsors.
Hardy said Thursday he’s “not anxious to be in contention,” and the controversy over the bills in Indiana and Arkansas “brought this above the level of contention.”
“The bill’s going nowhere, obviously,” he said.
But Hardy stood by the reason he sponsored the bill.
“If we force somebody who’s in a small business to do something that is going to literally violate what they consider their religion, then we are picking on them, which is different than trying to protect somebody else,” he said.
“Personally, I take care of people of all genders, all types of initials,” said Hardy, who is a doctor. “And I love all people. That’s what I do.”
The bills would have allowed parties involved in a judicial or administrative proceeding to claim that state action has burdened the exercise of their religion, even if the dispute is between private parties and the state is not involved.
Nevada is a hub of international tourism. Our bread and butter is hospitality, not institutionalized discrimination reminiscent of Jim Crow.
We're not confident the RFRA fever from the right has been completely cured. This is a piece of legislation that was sponsored by our current Lt. Governor Mark Hutchison when he was a state senator in 2013 (called the Preservation of Religious Freedom), and it was sponsored by several legislators from both parties, including Nevada's first openly gay legislator.
Does RFRA drama mean it's time to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act?