article_snippet.sent: Promoting the false dichotomy between protecting religion versus protecting equality serves no one.
article_snippet.sent: In general, it is a good thing for society to shape society laws in ways that allow people to live people
article_snippet.sent: The problem is that we no longer live in 1993, 10 years before Lawrence v. Texas, and 20 before U.S. v. Windsor.
article_snippet.sent: In 1993, our sensibilities were different; there was not yet a national conversation about the need to protect the rights and dignity of members of the LGBT community.
article_snippet.sent: Timing matters because society changes, and now that our horizons have been broadened we cannot just keep insisting that the law was never intended to discriminate and worked just fine 22 years ago, before our realized the law negative potential.
article_snippet.sent: Even if not a single lawmaker consciously intends the bill to be used as a shield for discrimination, we still have to take seriously Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' claim about unintended consequences.
article_snippet.sent: To put it simply, you have to be concerned with what the law allows a person to get away with.
article_snippet.sent: Public perceptions matter.