Twitter Reacts to Mississippi's New Hate Law

AcAfter Mississippi governor Phil Bryant signed what's viewed as the nation's most regressive anti-LGBT legislation in decades, reaction has been pouring in on Twitter.

Many of the state's biggest employers, such as Nissan, MGM Resorts, and General Electric, had urged Bryant to veto the legislation, which allows businesses, individuals, and religiously affiliated organizations to deny service to LGBT people and others who offend an individual's "sincerely held religious belief," and claims that one's sex assigned at birth is immutable. None of the corporations have yet reacted on Twitter to the passage of the bill.

Response to House Bill 1523 hasn't been confined to social media, though. California senator and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement:

"The tide of history is to expand freedom and end discrimination. Mississippi's abhorrent new law is going against the tide of progress in our country. We will send a clear message to legislators in Mississippi, North Carolina, or anywhere else who would follow their example in bigotry: hateful, discriminatory laws targeting LGBT Americans have no place anywhere in America. LGBT Americans have a right to respect, dignity and equality in every state in the nation. It is long overdue for Congress to pass the Equality Act to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the historic Civil Rights Act that guards our democracy."

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz followed that up with the DNC's own official statement, which included this:

"It's embarrassing, shameful, and truly perplexing that the Republicans still don't get it. LGBT Americans are entitled to equal protection under the law, just as everyone else. No exceptions. No allowances for discrimination. That we're even still debating this in 2016 boggles the mind.

Before Bryant signed the bill into law Tuesday, a protest took place outside the governor's mansion in Jackson, as reported by local journalist Arielle Dreher.