[nfb-talk] Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Steve Jacobson steve.jacobson at visi.com
Tue Mar 31 20:27:38 UTC 2015


While there may be some who are all right with this law, I wonder how many people have considered that regulations 
that require that cabs transport guide dogs probably would not hold under this law.  Further, there are religions 
that believe people are blind due to sins of past lives and that exposure to such people may risk one's own 
religious future.  People really need to think carefully about this.  So often, in an effort to protect one's own 
perceived religious beliefs, we forget we are also protecting the beliefs of other religions as well, including 
those whose beliefs we do not embrace.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:11:46 -0500, John Heim via nfb-talk wrote:


>The NFB should issue a statement condemning Indiana's religious freedom 
>act.

>I've been discriminated against in my life. I once was  turned down for 
>a job because the person who did the interview literally would not 
>believe that a blind person could use a computer. I'd been working as a 
>programmer and systems administrator for 15 years at that point. Another 
>time, I actually diagnosed a network problem during the job interview. I 
>plugged my laptop into the network, ran some diagnostics, and explained 
>what the problem was right there during the interview. But I didn't get 
>that job either because they said part of the job was drawing images for 
>their web site. Admittedly, It's debatable whether that second example 
>is discrimination. In fact, I personally would not call it 
>discrimination but people I've mentioned it to have felt otherwise. The 
>point is that I know what it's like being turned down for a job because 
>of something you can't control.  I know what it's like when that happens 
>to you when you're worried about having health insurance for your family 
>and making the house payment.

>I remember coming home from the job interview where I diagnosed the 
>network problem, dancing around and telling my wife I'd nailed it. I 
>remember the feeling I got a few days later when she read me the 
>rejection letter that said they really needed someone who could see. I 
>said it was their loss and tried to believe it. But we really needed our 
>health insurance.

>Now you have a bunch of lawmakers in Indiana telling us it's okay for 
>someone to turn a person down for a job because they're in a gay 
>marriage. Most of those lawmakers in Indiana have probably never been 
>discriminated against in their lives. They don't know what it's like.

>What they are doing is just wrong. And even if you don't agree, we in 
>the NFB need to stand  up against discrimination in all of it's forms. 
>This law is intended for use against gays but there's no reason it can't 
>be used against racial minorities or even disabled people.

>We have to add our voices to those who have come out against this law. 
>It's the right thing to do.


>-- 
>John Heim
>john at johnheim.com


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