Kasich on Religious Freedom Laws: 'What the Hell Are We Doing?'

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By    |   Monday, 11 April 2016 10:38 PM EDT ET

Ohio Gov. John Kasich says the rights of people who want to avoid participating in same-sex weddings should be respected but he believes Mississippi's recently passed law allowing private businesses and public employees to deny rights to gay people goes overboard.

"I'm a traditional marriage guy," Kasich said Monday in a town hall event on CNN, "but, I went home one day, I said, 'Sweetie, we've been invited to a gay wedding.' … She said 'I'm going, I don't know if you are or not.' And we went."

While he still believes marriage is between a man and a woman, Kasich said people should try to be understanding of each other.

"What are we going to do, write a law?" he said. "I read about this thing they did in Mississippi where apparently you can deny somebody service because they're gay. What the hell are we doing in this country?"

North Carolina passed a similar law recently as well.

"I may not appreciate a certain lifestyle or even approve of it, but that doesn't mean I've got to go write a law and try to figure out how to have another wedge issue," Kasich said, adding that some politicians are using the issue only to get publicity.


"We had a Supreme Court ruling," he said, "and you know what, let's move on."

A photographer who has a deep Christian faith that would have him object to attending a gay wedding should be allowed to bow out, he said.

"I might go down the street to another photographer," he said. "Why do I need to raise all that Cain about this?"

But, he added, "if I'm selling cupcakes, why don't I just sell a cupcake? That's what I do in commerce."

The issue gets "tricky" when figuring out how much someone should be forced to go against their deeply held beliefs, Kasich said. "But most of the time, I think we can accommodate one another, don't you? … We can accommodate one another even when we can have profound differences."

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Politics
Ohio Gov. John Kasich says the rights of people who want to avoid participating in same-sex weddings should be respected but he believes Mississippi's recently passed law allowing private businesses and public employees to deny rights to gay people goes overboard.
john kasich, gay, marriage, laws, rights, religion
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2016-38-11
Monday, 11 April 2016 10:38 PM
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