This week I got an upsetting call from my dad. My uncle is losing his battle with cancer. He’s been fighting lung cancer for the past year, gone through several rounds of chemo, but new cancer cells have been found in his brain. Because his lungs are so badly damaged, he’s too weak to continue with chemo. He’s gonna start hospice care this week.

My uncle turned sixty years old a month ago. At his birthday party, he was so weak that he could barely speak. The cancer has severely damaged his voice. Not the uncle I remembered when I was a kid, who sang like Elvis Presley. My uncle had a twin sister who died just a year ago.

They’re almost ten years younger than my dad, but both were in terrible health. The main reason? They were both life-long smokers.

But don’t argue with Robert Pittenger (R-NC) about smoking or facts.

Over the past couple of weeks, Pittenger has held town-hall type meetings in his district (gerrymandered around Charlotte, NC) to explain his views to voters as part of his re-election campaign.

At one meeting, he said, “You need to respect the autonomy of somebody running their business. It’s like smoking bans. Do you ban smoking or do people have the right to private property? I think people have the right to private property. In public spaces, absolutely, we can have smoking bans. But we don’t want to micromanage people’s lives and businesses. If you have a business, do you want the government to come in and tell you [that] you need to hire somebody? Why should government be there to impose on the freedoms we enjoy?”

The organization ThinkProgress asked Representative Pittenger whether he thought it was ok for a boss to fire someone for being LGBT or merely perceived as such. His response. “I believe people are already protected.”

In BJP Blog fashion, let’s break down his speech and comment.

REP. PITTENGER: We need to respect the autonomy of somebody running their business.

I don’t think he knows understands what the word “autonomy” means. “Autonomy” is freedom from all external control. It’s open for debate whether the government regulates businesses too much, but is there any question that people DO NOT have autonomy to operate their businesses however they see fit? There’s a minimum wage law, environmental laws, workplace safety rules and even anti-discrimination laws. Business owners have never had full autonomy.

REP. PITTENGER: It’s like smoking bans. Do you ban smoking or do people have the right to private property? I think people have the right to private property.

It may seem hard to argue with this sort of illogic because he’s linked two thinks that aren’t related and then drawn his own conclusion. But allow me resort to a favorite comparison the anti-gay propagandists use. “Do you ban bestiality or do people have the right to private property?” “It’s my sheep,” the farmer might say. Of course, we can BOTH ban bestiality and people have the right to private property. They’re not mutually exclusive ideas.

REP. PITTENGER: In public spaces, absolutely, we can have smoking bans. But we don’t want to micromanage people’s lives and businesses. If you have a business, do you want the government to come in and tell you [that] you need to hire somebody?

This is what I like to call the equality / special rights bait and switch. This is a ploy the anti-gay propagandists have used from the start. That somehow the LGBT community wants special rights, quotas or something. Although they don’t say it, the subtext is clear. Look what happened when black people got equal rights. Then we had all these quotas and blacks got special treatment. And because of affirmative action, “they took our jobs!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768h3Tz4Qik

On this issue, the gay rights movement is very different from the civil rights movement because any inequality of opportunity can be easily fixed with passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act by the US House of Representatives Although the LGBT community has faced historical discrimination, we are not born into situations where initially we have less opportunity. Gays and lesbians come from all backgrounds, races and economic situations. There’s no hidden gay agenda where we want to force employers to hire us because of our fabulousness!

REP. PITTENGER: Why should government be there to impose on the freedoms we enjoy?

This is the basic anti-government rhetoric that shows a complete lack of the understanding of what freedom is. You do not have an inherent freedom to harm another person. That’s not what freedom means. Your freedom to fire me because I’m gay affects my ability to make a living and support my family. The government shouldn’t allow that.

REP. PITTENGER: I believe people are already protected.

His home state of North Carolina is one of 29 states where you can be fired just for being gay so not only is logic not his strong suit, but Rep. Pittenger is blind to facts as well.

My point? And I do have one. Rep. Pittenger is a defender of smoking and discrimination, two things that I hate. He adopts the view that government should stay out of people’s lives, but government ain’t all bad.

This past week, I saw a map of per capita cigarette consumption by state and watched smoking rates reduce lock-step with increases in cigarette taxes for that state. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/10/state-cigarette-tax-maps_n_5777558.html?utm_hp_ref=smoking

In the past forty years, government increases on cigarette taxes and bans on smoking in public places have had a significant impact on smoking rates, saving millions of lives.

I imagine that bans on discrimination will have the same effect, causing less and less people to view homosexuality as wrong and an abomination. And I’m sure that’s what Rep. Pittenger and others are most concerned about.

On the subject of smoking and discrimination, I believe the government should continue to act to discourage both. I’m angered that Rep. Pittenger believes that freedom should work to protect both.

There’s a famous quote that originated sometime in the late 1800s. “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.”

The government exists to arrest you if you swing your arm and hit me in the nose. It exists to protect employees from unsafe working conditions and discrimination.

There is no freedom without the government to protect it.