“When any city or state in our union makes efforts to curtail the equal rights under the law that all people are entitled to, it is incumbent upon us to stand up and speak out.”
And that’s what four members of the San Jose City Council, under the leadership of Councilmember Ash Kalra, are doing. Speaking out against Indiana’s cockamamie “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
Margie Matthews, Raul Peralez and Magdalena Carrasco signed onto Kalra’s memo directing the City Manager to expedite a resolution with the following goals:
- Ban all City travel and business with the State of Indiana the State through legislative or executive action repeals the Religious Freedom Restoration Act;
- Ban travel to any other State which passes similar legislation;
- Call on Governor Brown and California Legislature to follow the lead of other States and a number of other California municipalities and corporations in condemning the actions of the State of Indiana.
Kalra called attention to what he described as the “odd language” in the Indiana law that “in essence gives a legal defense to a business accused of denying business to someone based up on their religious beliefs. This is the same defense that was used to deny service to people of color during the march for freedom and equality during the Civil Rights era,” Kalra noted in the memo, which he plans on presenting at the Rules Committee Wednesday.
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