George Takei responds to Arizona's anti-gay legislation

Former Star Trek cast member and current winner of all things social media George Takei has responded to the backwards anti-gay law that was passed under the guise of "religious freedom" and currently sits on the desk of Arizona governor Jan Brewer.

Takei penned the takedown of the bill in the form of an open letter and published it on Alliance.

Takei compares the claims of "religious freedom" echo the idea of "God's Will" used by Southern segregationists to uphold Jim Crow laws in the pre-Civil Rights era.

He goes on to say that the state is facing a major loss of tourism dollars if it turns its back on the LGBT community and reminds Governor Brewer that the last time Arizona stood strong on a similar issue, it lost $500 million and the chance to host a Super Bowl.

Check out the letter in its entirety below:

Dear Arizona,

Congratulations. You are now the first state actually to pass a bill permitting businesses-even those open to the public-to refuse to provide service to LGBT people based on an individual's "sincerely held religious belief." This "turn away the gay" bill enshrines discrimination into the law. Your taxi drivers can refuse to carry us. Your hotels can refuse to house us. And your restaurants can refuse to serve us.

Kansas tried to pass a similar law, but had the good sense to not let it come up for a vote. The quashing came only after the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and other traditional conservative groups came out strongly against the bill.

But not you, Arizona. You're willing to ostracize and marginalize LGBT people to score political points with the extreme right of the Republican Party. You say this bill protects "religious freedom," but no one is fooled. When I was younger, people used "God's Will" as a reason to keep the races separate, too. Make no mistake, this is the new segregation, yours is a Jim Crow law, and you are about to make yourself ground zero.

This bill also saddens me deeply. Brad and I have strong ties to Arizona. Brad was born in Phoenix, and we vacation in Show Low. We have close friends and relatives in the state and spend weeks there annually. We even attended the Fourth of July Parade in Show Low in 2012, looking like a pair of Arizona ranchers.

The law is breathtaking in its scope. It gives bigotry against us gays and lesbians a powerful and unprecedented weapon. But your mean-spirited representatives and senators know this. They also know that it is going to be struck down eventually by the courts. But they passed it anyway, just to make their hateful opinion of us crystal clear.

So let me make mine just as clear. If your Governor Jan Brewer signs this repugnant bill into law, make no mistake. We will not come. We will not spend. And we will urge everyone we know-from large corporations to small families on vacation-to boycott. Because you don't deserve our dollars. Not one red cent.

And maybe you just never learn. In 1989, you voted down recognition of the Martin Luther King holiday, and as a result, conventions and tourists boycotted the state, and the NFL moved the Superbowl to Pasadena. That was a $500 million mistake.

So if our appeals to equality, fairness, and our basic right to live in a civil society without doors being slammed in our face for being who we are don't move you, I'll bet a big hit to your pocketbook and state coffers will.

(via)