Jon Stewart Calls Arizona 'Morally Repugnant' as He Tears Down Its Anti-Gay Bill

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The Daily Show started last night’s episode by breaking down the absolute clusterfuck that is Arizona’s anti-gay bill, SB 1062. Of course, last night governor Jan Brewer vetoed the bill that would allow businesses to discriminate against customers citing religious reasons (see: anti-homosexuality), and thus (hopefully) put an end to this whole ordeal, but not before the state had a chance to really let its bigotry shine. So Jon Stewart gave a run down of the giant mess in the Southwest.

He explained why, exactly, Arizona might have felt the need to consider such discriminatory legislation in the first place: 

As Jason Collins becomes the first openly gay professional basketball player, as Michael Sam prepares to become the first openly gay NFL player, the Earth continues to spin on its axis, and a plague of locust has yet to descend upon America. Because of this lack of catastrophe, it is up to the states like Arizona to pick up the slack.

Ah, so that explains it. Because God has not yet decided to smite America for its embrace of homosexuality, Arizona had to take matters into its own hands and ensure that there is at least one state where "religious liberty," aka bigotry, stays strong.

What does Stewart have to say to Arizona? "You are lucky you're warm ... If you had your attitude and Seattle's weather, you would be the world's largest used condom and nuclear waste dump," he said, and frankly, we have to agree. 

Of course, the "religious liberty" defense of the bill is pretty asinine. Stewart showed a clip of Sen. Al Melvin calling the bill a "preemptive" defense, but when asked if he could name one example of religious freedom being under attack, Melvin simply replied "Not yet, no." Which means this bill makes about as much sense as a "Robot Voter ID bill." 

In the end, Brewer vetoed the bill because even the state legislators that voted for and passed the legislation realized it was a horrible mistake. One of the main factors in Brewer's decision to veto was that the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee did not support SB 1062, opening up the possibility of moving the game elsewhere. "This is where you are now, Arizona: You've made yourselves too homophobic and dickish for professional football," Stewart said.

But all the reasons Arizona lawmakers gave for turning against the bill left out the most important. Let Stewart explain: "It's morally repugnant."  

And really, that's all there is to it. 

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.