Days after he smeared the Last Supper as bland and ruled the didn’t blame Judas for betraying Jesus, NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers spent over seven minutes early Thursday morning viciously berating and decrying conservatives backing religious freedom laws in Georgia and North Carolina as segregationists alongside Christians, Chick-fil-A, and North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McCrory.
Meyers began the truly humorless rant by whining that both would “discriminate against LGBTQ people, but the governors in those states, both Republican, dealt with those bills in two very different ways.”
After reminding viewers of last year’s Supreme Court ruling, Meyers lamented that “opponents at LGBTQ equality argue[d] that they could just ignore or disobey the ruling” and was illustrated by “Kentucky's anti-gay rights Cathy cartoon Kim Davis.”
“But when that didn't work, state lawmakers around the country started proposing laws that would allow people to discriminate against LGBTQ people on so-called religious grounds,” he added.
Meyers first went after the now-vetoed bill in Georgia and its broad protections for religious institutions with overly simplistic, fallacy-laced complaints from years gone by hitting Chick-fil-A:
That's right, the bill would of qualified Chick-fil-A as faith based. Although to be fair, anywhere 15-year-olds are cooking your dinner, you're operating on faith. [LAUGHTER] So Chick-fil-A is doing God's work, whereas Chipotle practices the dark arts.
The anti-Christian host played a clip of Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal explaining his reservations about the bill since “what the New Testament teaches us is, that Jesus reached out to those who were considered the outcast.”
Being the smart aleck that he’s always been, Meyers provided this short lecture to Christianity that had the liberal audience laughing hysterically: “Yeah, that's the New Testament. You need to read the New New Testament, where Jesus is opposed to same sex marriages, teachers unions, financial reform, and ObamaCare.”
Shifting gears to North Carolina, Meyers aired his grievances about that state’s religious freedom law:
[T]hen there's North Carolina where Republican Governor Pat McCrory took the opposite approach. He signed a law passed by Republicans in that state that not only allows discrimination against LGBTQ people, it actually overturns a non-discrimination ordinance passed last month by the city of Charlotte.
Meyers used two MSNBC clips of national correspondent Joy Reid touting comparisons made by The Charlotte Observer of McCrory to segregationists like George Wallace, Orval Faubis, and Ross Barnett to further bolster his strawman case:
That's how bad this law is. North Carolina's newspapers have to reach for deep cut segregationists like Ross Barnett and Orval Faubis. Even if you don't know who Orval Faubis is, you can just tell from his name he was a hardcore racist. [LAUGHTER] Orval Faubis is the name of someone who at one point definitely said, well, well, well. [LAUGHTER] What do we have here?
He finally wound down the diatribe by concluding that ordinances known as bathroom bills both “legalize discrimination” and “could also make police officers” that dance with attendees of gay pride parades “a lot less fun.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers on March 31 can be found below.
NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers
March 31, 2016
12:44 a.m. Eastern
SETH MEYERS: Anyways, before we get to all our guests, lawmakers in Georgia and in North Carolina have come under fire for passing bills that discriminate against LGBTQ people, but the governors in those states, both Republican, dealt with those bills in two very different ways. For more on this, it's time for A Closer Look. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] First, a quick explanation on how we got here. You may remember last year's Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage which found both a constitutional right for gay couples to marry as well a constitutional right for this cop at last years pride parade to bust out some dance moves. [LAUGHTER] I don't know if he's protecting, but he's definitely serving. [LAUGHTER] At first, opponents at LGBTQ equality argues that they could just ignore or disobey the ruling. A strategy most famously employed by Kentucky's anti-gay rights Cathy cartoon Kim Davis. [LAUGHTER] She was an Ack to this. [LAUGHTER] But when that didn't work, state lawmakers around the country started proposing laws that would allow people to discriminate against LGBTQ people on so-called religious grounds. Indiana attempted that last year, sparking a national backlash in criticisms for politicians in both parties, but apparently lawmakers in the state of Georgia saw the backlash and said, “yeah, we should get in on that.”
(....)
MEYERS: That's right, the bill would of qualified Chick-fil-A as faith based. Although to be fair, anywhere 15-year-olds are cooking your dinner, you're operating on faith. [LAUGHTER] So Chick-fil-A is doing God's work, whereas Chipotle practices the dark arts. [LAUGHTER] But this actually underscores one of the biggest problems of the law, how broadly it defined the term faith based organizations. In fact, one State Senator in Georgia, Emanuel Jones, confronted the law's sponsor, State Senator Greg Kirk, about whether the law was so broad it could even be used to protect the KKK and Kirk doesn't exactly offer the most reassuring answer.
GA. DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR EMANUEL JONES: We're all familiar with the terms KKK, is that not correct? Meaning the hate organization Klu Klux Klan?
GA. REPUBLICAN STATE SENATOR GREG KIRK: I've read about them, yes. [SCREEN WIPE]
JONES: My concern is, couldn't that organization, if it chose to do so, identify itself as faith based?
KIRK: And again, I'm not an attorney, I don't know. I guess they could, Senator. I'm not sure.
JONES: Senator —
KIRK: I don't know what would stop them. [SCREEN WIPE]
JONES: Does that present a problem for you, Senator?
KIRK: Does it present a problem for me? No.
MEYERS: First of all, any time you take that long of a pause to answer a question, you're already in trouble. Who is the Karen I've been texting with? She is a — [LAUGHTER] work friend. [LAUGHTER] Second of all — [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] second of all, what's with Republicans suddenly getting stumped by questions about the KKK? It's like getting the round one question wrong on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. [LAUGHTER] A poodle is a type of what? Oh, I know it's dog, but I want to say tree. Am I over thinking this? [LAUGHTER] Now thankfully, Georgia's Republican Governor Nathan Deal announced on Monday that he would not sign this bill into law. A victory for gay rights advocates and to Deal's credit, he had already expressed some pretty strong objections to the bill before it even passed, urging his fellow Republicans not to use religion to discriminate against others.
REPBULICAN GOVERNOR NATHAN DEAL (Ga.): I'm a Baptist and I'm going to get into a little bit of biblical philosophy on my part right now. [SCREEN WIPE] I think what the New Testament teaches us is, that Jesus reached out to those who were considered the outcast.
MEYERS: Yeah, that's the New Testament. You need to read the new new testament, where Jesus is opposed to same sex marriages, teachers unions, financial reform, and ObamaCare. [LAUGHTER] So Deal deserves credit for vetoing the bill but he also has some self interested reasons for doing so given how many major national companies have threatened to stop business in Georgia if the bill had become law.
(....)
MEYERS: That's right, if this bill had become law, The Walking Dead would have stopped filming in Georgia, which would have been terrible since The Walking Dead employees thousands of Georgians every week. [LAUGHTER] So that's Georgia, then there's North Carolina where Republican Governor Pat McCrory took the opposite approach. He signed a law passed by Republicans in that state that not only allows discrimination against LGBTQ people, it actually overturns a non-discrimination ordinance passed last month by the city of Charlotte.
(....)
MSNBC’s JOY REID [on MSNBC’s The Place for Politics 2016, 03/27/16]: The law is so severe that it states, that — that the states most prominent newspaper, The Charlotte Observer, has compared Governor Pat McCrory to the likes of George Wallace, Orval Faubis, and Ross Barnett. All southern governors known for their support for segregation.
MEYERS: That's how bad this law is. North Carolina's newspapers have to reach for deep cut segregationists like Ross Barnett and Orval Faubis. Even if you don't know who Orval Faubis is, you can just tell from his name he was a hardcore racist. [LAUGHTER] Orval Faubis is the name of someone who at one point definitely said, well, well, well. [LAUGHTER] What do we have here? [LAUGHTER] So the North Carolina bill — [APPLAUSE] not only reverses Charlotte's non-discrimination ordinances, it bans all North Carolina municipalities from passing their own non-discrimination ordinances. It also requires trans individuals to use bathrooms that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate, not the gender they identify with. This law is similar to other so called bathroom bills that have been proposed by Republicans across the country
(....)
MEYERS: Most importantly, laws like these legalize discrimination, and not only that, they could also make police officers a lot less fun. This has been A Closer Look.
