On the same day when a Federal Judge overturned a gay marriage ban in Texas, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona — as many had hoped and some had predicted — decided this evening to veto a bill that would have given business owners the right to refuse service to gays, lesbians and other people on religious grounds.

The New York Times:

Brewer’s action came amid mounting pressure from across the spectrum, including members of the Republican establishment — former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, and others — who sided with the bill’s opponents, according to the New York Times.

The Times continues:

With three Republican state lawmakers who had voted for the measure now saying they oppose it, the bill is not expected to garner enough support to overcome the veto, which would require two-thirds of the votes in the Legislature.

And,

Ms. Brewer said at a news conference that she gave the legislation careful deliberation, talking with both sides before deciding that it would not be benefit the state.

“My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona,” Ms. Brewer said. “I call them like I seem them despite the cheers or the boos from the crowd.”

[:]

As Ms. Brewer deliberated, the state had already begun to lose business: The Hispanic National Bar Association canceled plans to hold its annual convention of 2,000 lawyers here next year because of the bill, saying in a statement, “It is imperative that we speak up and take immediate action in the presence of injustice.”

Read more here

Image: shutterstock.com

UPDATE: Reaction pouring in..

Some reactions at the conservative website Free Republic in comments:

Time to boycott Arizona.

Bye, Jan.

Jan Brewer will go down as a spineless homosexual ganglia. What a joke she was. They will not TRUMP GOD. Leviticus tells us what to do in the face of abomination.

God is in charge, I’m not worried, just pissed!

Brewer shows that she opposes the First Amendment in her veto of this bill. The next stage of this slippery slope is to force a God-fearing doctor to perform an abortion. The bill was a stand for freedom and liberty and was based upon the Eternal, Inerrant Word of God.

I guess Religious people of all faiths just need to get over their religious beliefs. Gays have all rights…..nobody else has any.

Absolutely pathetic.

Hopefully you people in Arizona will start removing the spineless from your elective offices.

On a policy level, it would not have mattered because the same federal courts that are imposing gay marriage are also going to require the public celebration of gay marriage. How soon? As fast as this is moving, it might be next week.

We all knew she would buckle the minute she started buckling on Obamacare and started backing down to Obama on immigration.

Perversion will always be perversion. Changing attitudes cannot change nature…and reality.

Sorry if your kid (I mean that rhetorically) is a sodomite…but that is still perverted.

This is a not new issue (or a progressive issue)…it has been around forever…and the sodomites always lose.

And why do they lose? Because it is a perversion of nature.

What Brewer doesn’t realize that is it is never enough with these people. Already, they’re plotting and scheming to force AZ churches to recognize homosexual weddings.
And I’m done with the NFL. They can go piss up a rope.

There are a lot more reactions Go to the link to read more.

Ed Kilgore:

There has been a fascinating change of circumstances occurring this last week, revolving around cookie-cutter state legislation sponsored by Republicans aimed at implementing the widely-deployed conservative rhetoric about “religious liberty.” …

What’s happening now, though, is that efforts to provide “religious liberty” exemptions to normal law-abiding expectations is moving the debate in the opposite direction, drawing attention to the extremism of conservative culture-issue positions.

…So a “religious liberty” statute that breezed through the Kansas House was halted in the Senate by Republicans who feared it went too far. And just tonight, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed even broader legislation that actually passed both houses of her state’s legislature, with both GOP U.S. Senators and even some bill sponsors urging her to do so.

Right now, the once powerful “religious liberty” strategy for dealing with cultural issues is in shambles, with Republicans divided. It goes to show that deception and indirection can only work for so long.

The Week’s Ryu Spaeth:

The bill had been pilloried by liberals and LGBT activists for allowing open discrimination against gays and lesbians, with some arguing that the bill amounted to an attempt at gay segregation. Even Arizona’s two Republican senators — John McCain and Jeff Flake — came out against the bill, as did former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and a host of businesses that clearly wanted nothing to do with the bill’s supposed protections.

Dorian de Wind, Military Affairs Correspondent

The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.

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