Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer
The bill allowing Arizona businesses to
discriminate against gay customers as a matter of religious freedom is likely to hit Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's desk on Monday; once Brewer has the bill, she has
five days to act on it. Brewer previously vetoed a similar bill, but its backers are hoping they've changed it enough to gain her support.
Since Brewer hasn't said what she'll do, there's a lot of tea leaf-reading and lobbying going on:
Chuck Coughlin, a public affairs consultant who led Ms. Brewer’s transition team after she was elected governor in 2009 and has remained a close ally, said he was doubtful that she would sign the bill into law, saying, “We already have laws to sufficiently protect people’s religion freedoms in this country, and this bill could actually empower people to discriminate.” [...]
In a letter to Ms. Brewer on Friday, Gonzalo A. de la Melena Jr., president and chief executive of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the bill, if it becomes law, would “ultimately have the effect of casting Arizona in a negative light that stands to damage our reputation nationwide and globally, and significantly harm our fiscal future.”
No kidding it could damage Arizona's reputation—a reputation already damaged by the state's viciously anti-immigrant law. But I guess if Brewer signed this bill, she and the president of Uganda would really have
something to bond over.