In this case, a boycott is appropriate, as is notifying people who will be affected by it. So, this is what I wrote to Phil Bryant, the governor of Mississippi, using his Web contact page:
After learning today that you signed discriminatory
legislation that violates the U.S. Constitution, we now realize that your
administration and legislature embody the worst of America. Your use of
religious rationale to discriminate against LBGT people starts Mississippi down
a slippery slope, the same one that the radical Islamists travelled to become
jihadists. It is a harsh comparison which you and legislators richly deserve.
Further, you’re enabling businesses in Mississippi purporting to be public accommodations
to violate the same laws that led to the need for the Civil Rights Act in the
1960s. To hang this legislation on protecting the rights of fundamentalist Christians
and other radical sects isn’t the kind of Christianity that I know as a member
of the Episcopal Church.
Now, you may think that some guy form Texas doesn’t count
for much because he doesn’t vote in Mississippi. But, we, like the business
backlash in North Carolina, can vote with our dollars. And therefore, our part
of that backlash starts me my wife and me changing upcoming vacation plans. We
will no longer visit the Mississippi Gulf Coast nor, if we travel through the
state, spend any money along the way. In addition, I will contact the
appropriate chambers of commerce to let them know the consequences of your
despicable action. And we will support firms that take proper action to neutralize
your and your legislators’ bigotry. Finally, I will blog this and ask people on
Facebook to follow our lead.
