NY’s Cuomo slams Indiana’s RFRA, yet plans on official visit to Cuba
Written on Saturday, April 4, 2015 by Timothy Whiteman
New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo may perceive that Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) could lead to legalized discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians when it comes to wedding cakes and reception photos, but he also doesn’t seem to have much of a problem when it comes to rubbing shoulders with a Communist dictatorship that places homosexuals and lesbians in concentration camps or executing them. As reported by Joseph Spector of Gannett News, Albany Bureau (via WGRZ of Buffalo, NY)on March 31, 2015, the Chief Executive has placed an immediate ban on all but essential contact between the Empire State and the Land of the Hoosiers, ostensibly over Governor Mike Pence recently signing the RFRA into law.
While almost half of the states in the Union already have their own version of Indiana’s RFRA codified into law, many on the right are scratching their chins as to why the sudden uproar regarding Indiana’s own version of protecting any given citizen from being forced by the government to perform a service or act they believe to be contrary to their religious beliefs. Examples given by the conservative movement supporting the various RFRAs throughout the nation would be a pro-life pharmacist forced to sell abortifacients (abortion-inducing drugs) or a pro-life organizations such as the Knights of Columbus being forced to rent their council halls for receptions for a same-sex nuptials.
However, many on the left are of the opinion that Indiana’s RFRA may be manipulated to discriminate against the LGBT community. One of the most prominent and vocal supporters of the social media driven #BoycottIndiana movement would be Governor Cuomo, who released in a written statement, “I direct all agencies, departments, boards and commissions to immediately review all requests for state funded or state sponsored travel to the State of Indiana and to bar any such publicly funded travel that is not essential to the enforcement of state law or public health and safety. The ban on publicly funded travel shall take effect immediately.”
Leaving little doubt exactly where he stood, the governor also penned, “New York State has been, and will continue to be, a leader in ensuring that all LGBT persons enjoy full and equal civil rights. With this action, we stand by our LBGT family members, friends and colleagues to ensure that their rights are respected.”
However, USA TODAY reported on Joseph Spector also covered earlier this year that Cuomo will be winging off to Havana, Cuba on April 20 to lead the first official US state trade mission to the repressive totalitarian dictatorship. As Spencer also reported in his March 31 article (above, cited and linked), NY Republican chairman Ed Cox held Cuomo to task, saying that the Democratic governor should also drop his plans later this month to visit the island prison, “Now that Andrew Cuomo has banned travel to Indiana, he can cancel his upcoming trip to Cuba, where gay marriage is illegal, political dissidents are imprisoned and tortured, and the Castro regime is on the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Or he can admit that both moves are political stunts meant to bolster his national profile with no grounding in reality or substance.”
While Cox did cite the Havana regime has long imprisoned and tortured gays, James Kirchick of the New York Daily News penned on June 19, 2012, an exposé of just how brutal the Castro Brothers have been to Cuban gays. As quoted, Herb Sosa of the Miami-based, Hispanic LGBT organization Unity Coalition stated “Gays are routinely picked up en masse on the streets, beaten, jailed indefinitely.” Kirchick also made a point of citing that Cuba has a long history of slowly executing gays by literally working them to death.
But Cuomo is far from being the only prominent liberal to have quite the double standard. As previously covered by Examiner.com, Apple’s gay CEO Tim Cook also to The Washington Times op/ed page to hammer Indiana’s Mike Spencer and the state’s legislature. However, Cook failed to mention that during his watch at Apple, a number of stores have been opened in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executes gays in public, usually be either beheading or hanging.
Read more at
http://patriotupdate.com/articles/nys-cuomo-slams-indianas-rfra-yet-plans-on-official-visit-to-cuba/
