Governor Bryant Speaks on House Bill 1523

Governor Phil Bryant says the “secular, progressive world” vented anger at him for signing a bill that would let clerks cite religious beliefs to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Governor Bryant spoke in Washington as the Conservative Family Research Council gave him an award for signing that bill and a similar one in 2014 called the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The American Civil Liberties Union seeks to block the religious objections measure, House Bill 1523, from becoming law July 1st. The ACLU responded Tuesday that the law will treat gay couples unfairly.
While some businesses and organizations have protested against the bill, one big concern for our Gulf Coast is how it will affect tourism. News 25 caught up with Governor Bryant when he was in Pascagoula today. “The idea that people are not coming here and making movies, not coming here to have concerts. Our rooms are being filled more than ever, returns of casinos are higher than they ever been along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. More people are visiting Mississippi than ever before, so I’d like people to look at the reality of it and not just rhetoric.”
House Bill 1523 is scheduled to take effect July 1st.