1 A quick rant on the almost surreal stupidity of Indiana governor Mike Pence and his bill to legalize discrimination against LGBT people.
— Nick Hanauer (@NickHanauer) March 28, 2015
My boss Nick Hanauer is lighting up Twitter again, this time with a “quick” 19-tweet rant explaining the economic stupidity of Indiana’s new law permitting businesses to discriminate against gays. Except, the rant is not so quick, so I’ve reformatted it below for your reading pleasure:
- A quick rant on the almost surreal stupidity of Indiana governor Mike Pence and his bill to legalize discrimination against LGBT people.
- What’s really important to underscore is how totally clueless people in places like Indiana are about 21st century economies.
- Growth in technological economies is all about innovation. The more innovation, the faster living standards improve.
- But innovation is a combinatorial and cooperative process. Innovation happens when old things are combined in new and novel ways.
- Innovation is an evolutionary process, and diversity is at the core of that process. It’s not how hard you try…..
- It’s how many different ways you try that define success. Economic dynamism isn’t driven by sameness, but by differences.
- Diversity does not hinder economic growth in technological economies. It super-charges it. Including more people is the key to growth.
- This is why inclusive, diverse cities like SF, Seattle, New York, and Boston kick the shit out of exclusionary places like Indiana.
- LGBT people are different. They are uncommonly creative, and innovative. Thus, they lead in many creative endeavors and industries.
- That is why LGBT folks are packed into the most innovative and successful companies.
- And why states like Indiana are increasingly becoming economic backwaters. Sad, forgotten places that smart people flee from.
- Obviously, people who are different flee, but also, all of the smart people who know that differences are key, flee as well
- Leaving behind a homogenized, narrow, and increasingly prejudiced population, who elect the same kind of leaders.
- Who enact laws that chase more smart diverse people away, that creates a brain drain death spiral.
- That in turn, consigns the economy to a backwater, or at a minimum, a low wage competitor to Bangladesh.
- All of which is a terrible waste of real estate and capital improvements. But something that may in fact, be unavoidable and inevitable.
- So, to all of you creative, innovative, different people in Indiana: The world faces tremendous challenges.
- They will only be solved by people like you. Come to places like Seattle that will embrace you, and leverage your talents.
- We need you. The world needs you. Indiana apparently, does not.
Many business leaders, particularly those in the tech industry, are expressing outrage over Indiana’s new anti-LGBT law, and an incipient boycott is already underway. For example, Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff has canceled all company events in the state, and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced today that he is barring city employees from using city money to travel to Indiana on business. But Nick’s invitation to LGBT Indianans to “come to places like Seattle that will embrace you and leverage your talents” suggests a much more lasting and effective economic sanction.
No doubt Nick is right that discriminatory laws like this result in a “brain drain” by driving talented workers out of state. But if the tech industry in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and elsewhere were to actively recruit LGBT workers and other Indianans who value diversity, that economic death spiral would quickly accelerate. And that would be an appropriately high price to pay for Indiana’s government sanctioned bigotry.
This is brilliant. But he doesn’t take into account that the governor is betting the Lord will bless them for discriminating against LBGT community.
Well I left a liberal New England state (yeah not Indiana) for NYC and couldn’t be happier, with same employer but better people, more friendly and more social and more diverse – old, young, black, white, gay, straight, hispanic, male, female, etc…
The old office is begging for me to come back, fuck them!
Gov. Pence is already having second thoughts.
Gov. Mike Pence, scorched by a fast-spreading political firestorm, told The Star on Saturday that he will support the introduction of legislation to “clarify” that Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not promote discrimination against gays and lesbians.
@1 Yes, they get to drown first when the Flood returns.
Let’s see, what’s Indiana’s biggest industry … manufacturing RVs? But isn’t Elkhart a ghost town these days? Maybe that’ll pick up again (if any RV builders are still in business) now that the economy is recovering and gas prices have fallen — for which they can thank Obama and his economic policies.
A dozen years ago, Goldy launched I-831, which would have officially declared Tim Eyman a “horse’s ass.” Then state attorney general Christine Gregoire went to court to halt it in its tracks. Now, California AG Kamala Harris is going to court to block another initiative — one far more dangerous and reprehensible. Filed by an Orange County lawyer named Matthew McLaughlin, it calls for executing anyone who has gay sex with a “bullet to the head” and imposes $1 million fines for “distributing gay propaganda” — a blatantly unconstitutional restraint on free speech. “As Attorney General of California, it is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians. This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society,” Harris said.
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....nitiative/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Official declaration or not, Tim Eyman is, in fact, a horse’s ass. But no one here has ever suggested he take a bullet. Goldy is no Matthew McLaughlin, and comparing these two initiatives starkly outlines the difference between liberal satire and the vicious bigotry of the fanatical religious right.
Fuck I hate Twitter. Worst communications vehicle ever invented by man.
“Religious liberty” explained. http://handbill.us/?p=47951
The new Indiana motto: The First Hobby Lobby State.
As a special benefit a return to the 1920’s when the largest social organization was the KKK, and it’s about time the Grand Dragon reign from the Hoosier State.
This will all be fine and cool and wonderful in Indiana allowing all that old fashion discrimination to come back. At least until these religious freedom folks decide it’s against their religion to pay taxes to the state. Or when the Amish insist their religious freedom demands the removal of non Amish people from certain areas. Or at least that the police not carry weapons. Removal of any national guard armories and depots. No flyovers of their farms by any military aircraft.
Your Jewish We don’t serve you cause you killed Jesus!
Yep the John Birch society members who haven’t died are so happy they may die from giddiness!
Will the governor reveal the congratulation cards he will be receiving from the leaders of the KKK and Nazi party?
This bill isn’t so much about discrimination against LGBT community but good old fashion discrimination. Certain Hoosiers have missed being able to use the Nigger in public for years, and now with religious freedom they can.
Thank you SCOTUS and the Hobby Lobby bill.
@9 “At least until these religious freedom folks decide it’s against their religion to pay taxes to the state.”
Now there’s an interesting concept — only atheists will pay taxes. The churches will be full every Sunday, and it won’t take some Republican nitwit to fill them.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.2164602
Oh rush to judgment libtards… why do FACTS always escape you? Apparently a manufactured crisis is just what Saul Alinsky likes. Apparently HA DUMMOCRETINS didn’t realise separate eleven states from the 20 below have judicial precedents that constitute a RFRA policy in their courts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....oycotting/
And who controlled Congress back in 1993 libtards? Clinton? really? Libtard states Connecticut an Rhode Island have this law. So why aren’t libtards boycotting these other 19 states?
Butt don’t let FACTS get in the way of a loserville argument!
According to my iPhone “combinatorial” isn’t a word. You’re a writer Goldy, what’s your take?
Since Goldstein has time to write this, it must be Paul Constant’s turn to suck off the (formerly) evil Daddy Warbucks.
@12 According to the Internet, your iPhone is wrong.
Yes Twitter is… http://twitchy.com/2015/03/28/.....te-leader/
can’t spell Housier? People from Indiana are not called Indianans.
@11 You didn’t read the fine print. Some are worse than others, and Indiana’s is worst of all.
Of course, what’s completely lost on them is this cuts both ways; we can refuse to serve them, too.
@16 I believe that’s Hoosier, not Housier. And, in any case, people from Indiana most certainly are called “Indianans”; “Hoosiers” is a nickname.
http://mediamatters.org/video/.....-an/203077
Stephanopoulos asked Governor Pence six times if under the law it would be legal to refuse service to gay customers and six times Pence refused to answer the question.
Stephanopoulos also asked (11:45) “do you think it should be legal in the state of Indiana to discriminate against gays or lesbians? It’s a yes or no question”
Surprising absolutely no one, Pence refused to answer.
Those bigots aren’t fooling anyone. Everyone knows what they want to do. And the law is worded broadly enough that they can do it to Muslims, Jews, and blacks, too, if it pleases them.
From now on, instead of calling Indiana the “Hoosier State,” we’ll call them the “Bigot State.”
Pence claims the law is “misunderstood” and is already talking about “clarifying” it. The amendment will go something like this: “By way of clarification, the State of Indiana only discriminates against gay and transgender people. And Muslims, too, of course. We won’t do it to Jews. We like Israel. We like Bibi.”
@Roger,
If Pence actually believed the law is misunderstood and not intended to allow discrimination he could have clarified his understanding and intention that the law would not be used to discriminate.
Pence chose not to use the opportunity he had this morning to do so.
If Pence had wanted to clarify that he does not believe it should be legal in the state of Indiana to discriminate against gays and lesbians he could have provided that clarification. Pence chose not to.
It is very clear by what Pence refuses to discuss or address that he is okay with discriminating against gays and lesbians, and is willing to use his power as the Indiana executive to allow it.
That interview was not a dog whistle, it was a trumpet call to bigots.
I live in Seattle and I’m very sympathetic with most of this rant. I grew up in Cleveland, so I know exactly what a brain drain looks like in a rust belt city. And Cleveland is a much more interesting city than Indianapolis.
Why the hell do you think I moved to Seattle in the first place? For all the reasons your boss outlined.
As my dad once said upon visiting Seattle, we need to find a way to keep the purple-haired people in Cleveland. If Indiana was smart, they’d be trying to do the same thing. The single easiest and best thing that Indianapolis could do to improve their city would probably be to offer incentives to attract more LGBT people.
Notwithstanding those facts and my love of Seattle, it feels tone deaf for anyone based in Seattle to get up on their high horse about “diversity,” given that Seattle is one of the whitest cities in America (and apparently getting whiter by the minute as more and more people of color get pushed out of it by the rising cost of housing).
As you well know, lots of LGBT people are also getting pushed out of Seattle (or at least out of Capitol Hill). Long-term, our loss will probably be Tacoma or Tucson’s gain.
Moreover, I’m guessing that both Seattle and Indianapolis are homogeneous at about the same level (actually Indy has far more African American people than Seattle, but less Latinos and Asians). They’re just homogeneous in different ways. They’re different silos.
It’s true, most creative people probably prefer the silo that is Seattle over the silo that is Indianapolis. That’s why Seattle is a booming city. But that doesn’t mean our city is some sort of diversity utopia, because it isn’t.
So people in Seattle, like your boss, should keep looking in the mirror and working on solving Seattle’s huge diversity problems before representing Seattle as some sort diversity utopia to which aggrieved LGBT people in Indiana should move.
I’m sure Indianapolis and other Indiana towns suck in many ways, especially if you are an LGBT person. But if an LGBT person has to choose between risking more discrimination and being able to afford a nice house or apartment, they may still decide that they are better off taking their chances and staying in Indianapolis and working for change there, rather than moving to Seattle, especially if they have friends, family, and a community there.
In the 1990s, Seattle was a great place to move to. The economy was good and the cost of housing wasn’t much different than in a Midwestern city (definitely wasn’t any more expensive than Chicago). I got a one-bedroom apartment near Group Health on Capitol Hill for $425 a month with parking after spending $350 a month to live in shared-housing in the Boston area.
Now, I’d think twice about moving here without a high paying tech job lined up, especially if I was over 30 and wanted to live in my own apartment or a house near the center of the city.
Seattle’s still a great place, but there’s a lot less meat on the bone for average people than there used to be.
So we should probably be worrying less about how to attract people from Indy and more about how we are going to retain our own artists, people of color, and LGBT people.
Or is your boss’s long-term plan for improving diversity in Seattle to replace the low-income Seattle LGBT people who can’t afford to live here anymore, with upper-income LGBT people fleeing discrimination in places like Indiana?
What all of you libtards are missing is there is a federal RFRA law, champeened by Chucky Schumer. There are three criteria that courts look at. That’s why Hobby Lobby won. Obummer and HHS went for the jugular and SCOTUS said nyet! HHS chose not to use ANY of them.
So if any Hoosier company uses a criteria that fails any of the three SCOTUS will slam it back! Of course FACTS are never part of any DUMMOCRETIN screed!
@25 What you’re missing is it’s not the same law and doesn’t do the same things, nor was the federal law enacted with a discriminatory motive as this one was.
@24 Seattle’s progressives are not to blame for the high cost of living here. They’re victims, not the perpetrators, of unaffordable housing. They’re the people who are pushing for higher wages. Someone is doing very well from Seattle’s high rents, but it’s not the people paying those rents. If you want to blame someone, go after the usual suspects — the one-percenters and those who champion increasing the concentration of wealth and property in fewer hands.
@26,
Puddy remember you screaming here Federal Law always trumps local and state laws. Now you change your tune?
While I am in total agreement with Hanauer here, on the subject of “diversity” I’d like to point out that Indianapolis is 62% white, 28% African-American, 9% Latino. Seattle is 70% white, 8% African-American, 7% Latino. And Seattle is probably going to be whiter in 2020 than it is now, while Indy is probably not. My point is that Seattle can brag about a lot of things, but diversity isn’t really one of them. Especially in SLU.
@19 It’s Hoosier. I grew up in Indiana so I may have some authority on this topic. Hopefully my stumble fingers are not to blame for the misspelling. The origin of the word Hoosier though is lost in the mists of time. It maybe from how people answered the door when someone knocked at the door of the house/cabin and said Whose there.
True, Seattle is relatively non-diverse, racially speaking, due to economic and immigration factors. But that’s not the point. The key point is that Seattle mostly welcomes and embraces diversity, racial and otherwise, while Indiana and other places actively discourage or segregate it.
@11 The RFPA is most likely unconstitutional. The US Constitution makes certain guarantees of freedoms and sets up a separation of church and state. Anyone taking the time to read the Federal Papers and Thomas Jefferson would quickly realize the RFPA is antithesis to their intent. Now getting the political Supreme court of the Land to rule on whether RFPA is constitutional has yet to happen, and they will continue to sidestep. Yet it should become clearer to them that there are unintended consequences built into the law.
You can make an argument that this doesn’t apply to the states and prior to the 14th amendment. Even under 1st 4th and 5th amendment the RFPA doesn’t hold up at the Federal level.
In Indiana as in most places discrimination occurs because someone is different from another person, and for whatever reason that discrimination is tolerated. I grew up in a small town in Indiana north of Indianapolis. We had one black family in the town. Some small towns didn’t have any black families. Whereas there were a lot of black families in Indianapolis and Gary and the big cities. In the small town a lot was made about it being part of the underground railroad, though it never seemed to me that the current residents really lived up to that. Though maybe that is because many of the folks running the railroad were of a small religion, that still had a small church in town. One has to remember though that the town was just a way point and that the folks using it were on their way to Canada, that bastion of freedom for them.
You won’t find the animus here some people will only say in the gym locker room or in the shadows these days against blacks even when I was growing up the word nigger had mostly become a word not to be used, and a reason to try to get out of reading “Huck Finn” in High school. Still there were some that would use it publicly. Here with the exception of a few cities there are far fewer blacks here and the animus has not been against them, but against people of Chinese and Japanese descent and Native Americans. There are reasons China town exists in Seattle. Some are good reasons and it makes sense for folks with different to band together in a foreign land, yet there is a discriminatory darker history to Seattle’s China town that should be spoken more about to put light into the shadowy corners so when certain thoughts are spoken that it’s ok to disagree with those thoughts rather than just go along to get along (a Midwestern attitude if there is one).
Things are better in Seattle and it’s much more liberal that some cities and towns in Indiana. Actually Indianapolis is pretty liberal but it’s not perfect. Remember the folks in the legislature come from a lot of different places some that still may not have their own black family or families, but probably do have a couple of Aunts living someplace in town. Very WASP places with god fearing people as they like to say. At least on the surface. And they have a lot of broad political support, but it’s not really a deep down support except for a certain hard core group. These folks can be entertaining to have over for dinner on Sunday though, perhaps not every Sunday though.
@23 He’s not fooling anyone. Despite his evasiveness and attempts to confuse the issue, he’s transparent as hell. Everyone knows what this is about. It’ll be interesting to see how Indiana voters react to their state’s Republican politicians when they see businesses, jobs, conventions, and sports tournaments leaving.
@28 No. You’re confused. As usual.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l.....ti-gay-law
TPM LIVEWIRE
Don’t fuck with Sir Charles.
Fnarf @29,
I don’t think either our state government, or King County government or Seattle city government is attempting to legislate disincentives for people of color (non-European Caucasians) as states with Republican dominated governments have.
Are you aware of any proposals which would further restrict civil (e.g. voting) or economic rights in our locale?
Great smackdown of Indiana’s bigotry!
Hanauer was addressing the specific point of LGBTQ diversity, and on that score, Seattle does very well indeed. Washington state’s legal protections for LGBTQ citizens, and marriage equality, were both results of the hard work which now-Mayor Murray put into his many years of representing Seattle’ 43rd legislative district.
The rising rents, and other cost-of-living increases, are a result of the tremendous economic success Seattle has achieved, and one basis of this success is our diverse, inclusive background. We’re trying to alleviate some of the resulting problems with liberal policies, e.g. the higher minimum wage, so that more contributors to our high quality of life can actually live in town and enjoy the benefits.
My one complaint with Hanauer’s manifesto was this:
LGBT people are different. They are uncommonly creative, and innovative. Thus, they lead in many creative endeavors and industries.
That is why LGBT folks are packed into the most innovative and successful companies.
I’ve worked on many creative teams, and I’ve lived on Capitol Hill for almost twenty years, but I’ve never seen any evidence for LGBTQ persons being inherently more creative than the general population. I think his latter point has it backwards: organizations which embrace and celebrate diversity tend to be more creative, and to have openly LGBTQ team members.
Again, great smackdown of Indiana’s abuse of religious liberty — which should be inclusive and welcoming — to exclude and to discriminate.
@38 It’s the same old shit: Somehow gay couples getting married in Massachusetts undermines hetero marriages in Indiana. They’ve never explained how. Just bigots hating anyone different from them.
So federal laws don’t trump state laws senile schismatic IDIOT Wabbit?
Thanks for that knowledge senile schismatic IDIOT Wabbit!
[Deleted]
Why doesn’t Nick Hanauer LEAVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA to protest that country’s adoption of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 — which is nearly identical to the recently passed Indiana law? The RFRA was passed by a nearly unanimous Congress (both houses solidly controlled by the Democrats), sponsored by Sen Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.....ration_Act
Why single out just one state, when one can protest against an entire country?
@41 It takes a special kind of talent to get yourself censored on this uncensored blog.
@42 Very sloppy work for a lawyer, Richard. The federal law doesn’t legalize discrimination, and wasn’t intended to. The Indiana law does, and is. Glad to see you’re still with us, though.
The fallout from Indiana’s “religious freedom” law, which a conservative editorial writer described as “falling from the stupid tree and hitting every branch on the way down” (sorry, I lost the link), has claimed its first legislative casualty: A similar bill failed in Montana’s lower house Thursday night after that state’s governor admonished legislators that Montana’s economy already has enough problems without adding what Indiana is now facing.
Meanwhile, Charles Barkley is calling on the NCAA to hold next week’s Final Four somewhere else.
Personally, I think this is one of the best gifts the GOP could have given Democrats for the 2016 elections, right up there with Todd Akin in 2012, and I wish I could say that I thought of it and put them up to it, but I’m not that clever. This was the work of a political genius who, whoever, may be confused about which side he’s working for.
Hey Moonbats, check this out…liberal Democrats demand that a black baker bake them a wedding cake…
http://liberallogic101.com/?p=23483
@48 The man should bake the cake and then give whatever is left after the cost to the NAACP.
Rabbit @ 44
The federal law doesn’t legalize discrimination, and neither does the Indiana law. There has not been a single state or local anti-discrimination law ever invalidated by either the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or any of the 21 or so state RFRA’s (which include Obama’s home state of Illinois).
Interestingly enough, Indiana doesn’t have any state laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It would be a more worthwhile endeavor to try to enact such an anti-discrimination law in Indiana, rather than engage in faux political theater over efforts to protect religious freedom against discrimination.
@50 Care to site any cases that dealt with the underlying constitutionality of the RFRA? Since our courts are reluctant to judge any law until a case comes before them there may not be any. There are a number of laws that are more theatre than substance and are rarely enforced. Spitting on the sidewalk, or you can\t teach pigs to sing.
Supreme court decides the Sherbert rule is passé and wants to pass the buck back to Congress to make specific religious exceptions in legislation. That it’s ok for members of Indian tribes to use peyote, or that putting a road through certain areas may impact the religious practices of some native Americans. Congress objecting to this change passes a limited RFRA forcing the court to go back to the Sherbert rule. I think there is some additional language and now today because Congress had a fit and doesn’t want to be responsible and passed the RFRA the law of unintended consequences maybe making a really big appearance here. Maybe the Smith rule wasn’t all that bad an idea.