"... the authors of religious freedom laws have countered what they see as excess with excess of their own ..."

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COMMENTS: 
*  ... Follow the general rule: If you take the public's money, you take the public.  Simpler and less costly.  Exceptions: customer breaching the peace, being overly demanding (such as wanting to buy tire chains at a bakery) or requests that would violate free speech.
*  More Republican legislators have been arrested by nine times as many for inappropriate behavior in public bathrooms then transgender people. Keep Republicans out of public toilets. Protect our children.
*  The rights of those that choose who to do business with should not be determined by the minority.
*  ... Can you be fired just for being straight? Can you be evicted or denied housing just for being straight? Equal rights are in no way "Special" rights.
*  Can someone do a little digging into the Governors life or the people who discriminate...just want to make sure they are holier than thou and have lived and are living the perfect Christian life. Would really hate to see a hyporcrite telling people how to live their lives, you know, the Kim Davis' of the world.
   *   The South is full of cavorting ReTHUGnican politicians. From governors (Alabama, Louisiana) to congressmen and senators, the whole lot from the South seems to get dumber with each election. This is what happens when the GOPers tried to 'thin the herd' with election laws. REMEMBER: Play stupid games with people's lives, win stupid prizes.
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'Religious freedom' vs. equal rights: Our view
Where these laws go wrong is using a shotgun when what's needed is a scalpel.
By The Editorial Board, USA Today, April 11, 2016

The conservative backlash against last year’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision protecting the right of gays and lesbians to marry has arrived with force this spring. Fights have erupted in several states over “religious freedom” bills that at their ugliest extremes permit open discrimination against any member of the LGBT community in matters far beyond marriage.

Mississippi adopted a bill last week that gives broad rights to religious organizations, government employees, businesses and individuals to refuse service to gays and lesbians, especially when it comes to same-sex marriages. The First Amendment already protects the right of any religious leader to refuse to conduct a gay marriage, but this law protects virtually anyone in the wedding business — even jewelry stores — from having to do business with gays.

North Carolina approved a measure last month to override local anti-discrimination statutes in almost a dozen cities and towns. It also included language to bar transgender people from using bathrooms according to their preferred identity, demonizing a tiny minority.

The National Conference of State Legislatures counts related bills in 10 states; the Human Rights Campaign says it’s monitoring nearly 200 measures in 34 states. When the Supreme Court gets ahead of the elected branches of government on social issues, particularly when a decision overturns established law in dozens of states, a backlash is the price of democracy.

Many people of faith say they’re under siege by powerful cultural forces backed by the courts. They say traditional beliefs about marriage and sexuality no longer have a place in mainstream America. Their anger is only increased by the counterbacklash — major companies with gay customers and employees have condemned the laws and brought heavy pressure to roll them back. PayPal canceled plans to open an operations center that would have brought 400 jobs to North Carolina. Bruce Springsteen even canceled a concert in Greensboro over the weekend.

The laws can be a nightmare for Republican governors and the GOP more broadly, splitting business and religious factions and forcing politicians to choose sides. In Georgia, religious conservatives called for retribution against Gov. Nathan Deal after he vetoed the state’s religious freedom bill last week.

Deal had it right when he rejected the bill: “I do not think we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia, of which I and my family have been a part of for all of our lives.”

As Deal implied, the authors of religious freedom laws have countered what they see as excess with excess of their own, granting broad rights to discriminate against a group of people in ways uncomfortably similar to the blatant “we don’t serve your kind here” discrimination against blacks and Jews that Americans have worked hard to banish.

What is important for both sides to remember is that the impulse to protect Americans' right to live according to their religious convictions was born in Europe's bloody history of religious war and discrimination. Religious freedom is as important a bulwark of inclusion as the right to equal treatment regardless of sexual orientation.

Where laws in Mississippi, Georgia and North Carolina go wrong is using a shotgun approach to protecting religious freedom when what is really needed is a scalpel. For the most part, these state laws are not designed to walk a careful line between protecting religious freedom and ensuring the rights of gays and lesbians. Instead, the broad licenses to discriminate reflect the local political power of religious conservatives, not an effort to find solutions.

When rights like these conflict, it’s in the best American tradition to work out an accommodation. The force of government should be on the side of protecting the broadest possible scope for both rights, not on the side of rank discrimination.
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