In an incredibly hypocritical and politically motivated move, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a ban today on all non-essential government travel to the state of Indiana as a sign of protest over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
Pressure began mounting on Cuomo when a group of LGBT lawmakers in New York demanded he issue an executive order boycotting the state.
The RFRA has been intolerantly attacked by those in the LGBT and far-left communities as being a license to discriminate, a completely false argument to say the least. Multiple states have RFRA laws in effect, none of which allow for discrimination.
Stanford law professor Michael McConnell, a former appellate court judge, told The Weekly Standard: “In the decades that states have had RFRA statutes, no business has been given the right to discriminate against gay customers, or anyone else.”
Still, Cuomo has taken directives from his far-left base and issued the travel ban.
Cuomo’s directive isn’t just politically calculated. It’s hypocritical as well. For all his efforts to portray himself as a champion of human rights and freedoms, Cuomo is planning some travel of his own. He is headed to Cuba next month to establish trade relations with one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world. And the same Democrats who hectored the governor into boycotting travel to Indiana applaud his efforts where Cuba is concerned.
Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, who spearheaded the move to persuade Cuomo to ban travel to Indiana, was celebrating Cuomo’s Cuba trip just days ago. Glick even co-sponsored a resolution urging Cuomo to open up “the ports of the state so New York businesses can be more competitive in obtaining contracts to trade with the Republic of Cuba.”
Cuba, meanwhile, has no anti-discrimination laws currently regarding the provisions of goods and services. None. It has no anti-discrimination laws regarding hate speech against particular groups. But it does have a constitutional ban against same-sex marriage.
Yet Democrats and Cuomo are perfectly fine with that.
If you’re keeping score, give Indiana’s alleged intolerance an “F,” but give Cuba’s proven intolerance an “S” — for shrug.
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
