Whose views on religious freedom changed?
People used to talk about religious freedom less, and when they did they were often liberals. What changed?
One interesting element in the debate over laws like Arizona's SB 1062 has been a widespread willingness to simply accept the basic framing—LGBT equality/nondiscrimination vs. religious freedom—as the obvious starting point. But just a few years ago, this wouldn't have been obvious at all. Religious freedom may be the rallying cry of much of the right, but only recently. People used to talk about religious freedom less, and when they did they were often liberals.
What changed? Ramesh Ponnuru says liberals did:
What has changed since 1993 is American liberalism’s view of religious freedom. The [federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act] was not something liberals conceded to religious conservatives. It was something they affirmatively sought. . . . Now liberals regard religious exemptions from laws as suspicious privileges for religious believers. Brian Beutler, writing in Salon about the Arizona bill, makes the point thus: “To support SB 1062 you must conceive of religious liberty as a social trump card. . . . This view writes democratic norms and competing liberties entirely out of the equation. . . . That view reflects an old, reactionary conception of liberty.”
