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Democratic Governor: Arizona Shouldn't Host 2015 Super Bowl If Jan Brewer Signs Anti-Gay Bill

Democratic Governor: Arizona Shouldn't Host 2015 Super Bowl If Jan Brewer Signs Anti-Gay Bill
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Washington Bureau Chief, HuffPost

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Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) spoke out against the controversial anti-gay bill in Arizona Monday, stating that if Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signs it into law, the state should not be allowed to host the Super Bowl next year in Glendale.

"It seems to me if they pass this law and if she signs it, the NFL may be looking, or maybe should be looking, to move the Super Bowl out of that state. There are so many places around the country that are welcoming to everybody," he said in an interview on MSNBC with host Ronan Farrow.

Arizona's SB 1062 would allow business owners to refuse service to same-sex couples on the grounds of "religious freedom." The legislature passed it last week and it now awaits action by Brewer, who has not yet indicated whether she plans to sign it.

Business leaders have spoken out forcefully against SB 1062, and the tourism industry has been especially worried about the effects the law could have in advance of the big football game.

It wouldn't be the first time Arizona lost a Super Bowl. In 1993, the state was also supposed to host it. But after Arizona voters failed to approve a ballot measure making Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a state holiday, the NFL pulled out and took the Super Bowl to Pasadena, Calif., instead.

In recent weeks, multiple states have been pushing these anti-gay bills, although they have not advanced as far as in Arizona.

A majority of Arizona's congressional delegation, including its two Republican U.S. senators, have spoken out against SB 1062 and urged Brewer to veto it.

UPDATE: 3:09 p.m. -- In an interview with HuffPost Live Monday afternoon, Markell spoke further about the Super Bowl, saying, "If the governor passes that law, it could put the NFL in a position of having to reconsider whether it actually has the Super Bowl in Arizona because of just all of the other issues surrounding this, and I think we all want to show we're welcoming to all people. ... In the court of public opinion, a league that is trying to show it's open to everybody -- there's obviously been a lot of publicity recently about Michael Sam -- and so a lot going on around that."

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Before You Go

The Marital Histories Of Our Founding Fathers
Benjamin Franklin (01 of07)
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We all know that Benjamin Franklin was an exemplary American, embodying the thrift, industriousness, and political equality we celebrate every Independence Day. He earned the title of "The First American" for his crusade to unite the original American colonies, but his loyalty to the U.S. may not have extended to his marriage. Despite his memorable paeans to the institution (Franklin famously said, "Marriage is the most natural state of man, and...the state in which you will find solid happiness") and his claim that "It is the man and woman united that make the complete human being," Franklin notoriously surrounded himself with female admirers. Though there are no reports of his consummating his relationships with these much younger, attractive women, Franklin was "a master of amorous friendship...expressed in exchanges of teasing kisses, tender embraces, intimate conversations and rhapsodic love letters, but not necessarily sexual congress."Photo Courtesy of Flickr: mbell1975
George Washington(02 of07)
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Our first president, George Washington, is famous for his inability to tell a lie. The honest streak that made him famous certainly benefited his wife, Martha Dandridge Custis. Although there is some ambiguity surrounding his relationship with Sally Fairfax, to whom he wrote letters alluding to his affections for her, by all reports any flirtation between the two was never acted upon after Washington married Martha. Photo Courtesy of Flickr: mbell1975
John Adams(03 of07)
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John Adams' marriage to his third cousin Abigail was one of collaboration, communication and codependence. Correspondence between the two illuminates their mutual devotion and intellectual respect; the pair always referred to one another as "My Dearest Friend." Abigail influenced John politically, urging him to advocate for the abolition of slavery and against institutionalized sexism. By all accounts, our second president reportedly held his wife in high esteem and the pair shared a happy, faithful and loving marriage. Photo courtesy of Flickr: mbell1975
Thomas Jefferson(04 of07)
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If there is any American president deserving of a Lothario title, it is certainly Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, who owned hundreds of slaves throughout his life, fathered six children by his "slave concubine" Sally Hemings during a relationship that spanned at least 38 years. Although Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemmings' children, he did not free their mother. Jefferson's wife, Martha, died while giving birth to their sixth child. Photo courtesy of Flickr: Tony the Misfit
John Jay(05 of07)
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John Jay, known as the father of New York and the first Chief Justice of the United States, reportedly shared a happy marriage with his wife, Sarah Livingston. Jay held a greater variety of posts than any of America's other founders, and Sarah acted as a political liaison and diplomat, "astutely networking with the movers and shakers of the time." John relied on his wife considerably and the couple enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Their marriage was a love match despite their ages -- he was 29, she was 18. Of their marriage, Sarah's brother wrote, "Mr. & Mrs. Jay can be unhappy no where. They love each other too well..."Photo courtesy of Flickr: Jay Heritage Center
James Madison(06 of07)
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Our fourth president, the "Father of the Constitution" and author of the Bill of Rights, may have been a proponent of dividing power among the branches of government, but he did not believe in dividing his attention among women. James Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a widow, and adopted her one surviving son. A charming, vivacious woman, Dolley sacrificed her place in the Quaker community to which her family belonged in order to marry Madison. Ostracized from the Friends Church for marrying outside her faith, Dolley assumed the role of White House hostess, holding dinner parties, salons and helping Madison to win reelection in 1812. Photo courtesy of Flickr: lreed76
Alexander Hamilton(07 of07)
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Alexander Hamilton suffered through one of the first public media scandals of America's history -- but with good reason. The first United States Secretary of Treasury was forced to resign from office out of sheer embarrassment when his three-year extramarital affair with Maria Reynolds became public. Reynolds' husband, a convicted swindler named James Reynolds, blackmailed Hamilton, demanding a fee for his silence. But when a political pamphlet revealed the Reynolds liaison, Hamilton admitted, "My crime is an amorous connection with [James Reynolds'] wife." Hamilton responded with his own pamphlet, publishing an "appallingly thorough account of the affair." Despite Hamilton's partially self-inflicted public humiliation and irreparably damaged reputation, his wife Betsey stood by her man and remained his wife until his untimely death during an infamous duel at the hands of political opponent Aaron Burr.Photo courtesy of Flickr: Marion DossPhoto
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