Mississippi's law is being misinterpreted by the media
When Mississippi governor Phil Bryant signed the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act earlier this month, the storm of opprobrium from the other 49 states was overwhelming. The new law, which specifically ensures the rights of religious organizations and individuals to adhere to their beliefs without government punishment, was immediately excoriated as an “anti-LGBT hate law” in the national press. Some compared the law to a resurgence of the Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation half a century ago. Dire warnings of LGBT people losing their jobs, being denied housing, and even being turned away from emergency medical treatment filled the air. Tellingly, nearly every news article about the law put the words “religious freedom” in quotation marks, as if to indicate that such freedom doesn’t really exist. Businesses have announced that they will not expand into Mississippi and musicians have canceled performances there.
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