Miss. businesses fight law backlash
Get ‘welcome’ word out to all spenders
Angie Tacker has operated a business in Hernando for 40 years. She hasn’t seen reason to turn away business in all that time, and she doesn’t intend to start now.
“Since I’m in business to make a living, I don’t know why I would ever not serve someone,” Tacker, owner of Hernando Flower Shop, said Tuesday.
Her reasoning has found a chorus of support in the week since Gov. Phil Bryant signed the “Religious Conscience” legislation into law, a measure more far-reaching than similar laws or proposals that have drawn protests across the nation.
Just Tuesday, organizers of the annual Mississippi Picnic in Central Park announced they were canceling the 36-year-old New York City celebration of Mississippi food and culture because of the law, which allows businesses and government officials to deny services if they believe providing them would violate their religious or moral views.
Add to that a string of national businesses taking a stand against the law; entertainer Bryan Adams canceling a show in Biloxi; 95 Mississippi authors — including John Grisham — signing a letter released Monday calling for repeal; Oxford’s annual film festival adding an LGBT series in response to the law, and a restaurant in Salt Lake City — a bit conservative in its own right — banning Mississippi food.
That’s just a sampling, but Tacker believes it’s a reminder
of what happens when “politicians who live in glass houses,” as she puts it, pass laws governing personal behavior.
“I find it hard to believe we’re dealing with this in 2016 when there are so many other issues,” Tacker said.
At least a few state legislators agree. More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers called Tuesday for repeal of the law, signed by Bryant April 5, before it goes into effect July 1.
While same-sex couples have been the focus of objections, the Mississippi measure has wider implications. Services, for example, could be denied without legal consequence to heterosexual couples suspected of having premarital sex.
Despite Tuesday’s call, chances of a reversal in the Republican-controlled Legislature seem remote. Jason White, the Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee, said it was “not very likely” the request would be considered.
Unless the unexpected happens legislatively, those promoting the state will continue to try to dodge the fallout.
Despite the Bryan Adams cancellation on the coast, a concert promoter at Southaven’s BankPlus Amphitheater at Snowden Grove and Landers Center in Southaven said he’s had no problems so far.
“None whatsoever,” Jim Green of Green Machine Concerts said when asked if he had any threatened cancellations or negative feedback at either venue.
Concert promoter Arden Barnett with Ardenland in Jackson said he does not expect cancellations with the company’s current lineup, but he recognizes the possibility.
“I’ve already started drafting a letter to the agencies and the managers we do work with regarding our take on the bill and pleading they still will come play Mississippi and don’t hold it personally,” he said.
Tacker, the Hernando businesswoman who operates a couple of blocks off the town square, hasn’t taken any demonstrable actions to promote her stance — no “We Welcome Everyone” signs or anything of that nature. But, she said, word-ofmouth has let it be known her floral business won’t turn away anyone’s money.
“I think the only time I’ve ever turned away anyone’s business,” she said, “was once when I was printing T-shirts, and somebody wanted to print something vulgar on it.”
I find it hard to believe we’re dealing with this in 2016 when there are so many other issues.” Angie Tacker, owner of Hernando Flower Shop