You do realize, of course, that this is a federal law signed by Bill Clinton in 1993 protecting the religious rights of Indians in regards to peyote? This new law simply gives the same rights to other religions. Think about this: suppose a Muslim restaurant had a customer that demanded a BLT, should said Muslim be forced to handle the bacon? This law would protect his religious right not to handle pork.
Sorry, but this is simply not true. The previous RFRA laws applied to
government action. The Indians were allowed to circumvent a government regulation that prohibited their possession of peyote if, and only if, the government could not establish that the regulation was narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest. By contrast, this new law creates a religious "defense" in disputes between private parties, including individuals and business establishments. And by so doing, it creates a license to discriminate not only on the basis of sexual orientation, but also religion, race, gender, and other protected categories (at least under state law; the exemption would not be applicable to federal anti-discrimination statutes). This is why Pence was avoiding answering the question when it was posed: Does this law allow businesses to refuse to serve gay people? And the answer is yes, it does.