A young man walks into a local coffee shop in Arizona for his regular large latte when he is shocked by the answer of the cashier behind the counter.

“Sorry we don’t serve people like you,” she tells him.

The young man, who has been a regular at the coffee shop for years, is not only shocked, but mortified as he leaves the coffee shop empty-handed.

This scenario could have actually happened if Arizona’s governor didn’t veto a recent bill that went through.

The new bill that was proposed (and thankfully vetoed) would have allowed business owners to deny business to anyone that went against their religious beliefs. Many focused on the clear discrimination that it would cause against lesbians and gays.

As many new sources indicate, the bill was inspired by a the case of  New Mexico photographer who was taken to court after refusing to shoot a gay commitment ceremony. Other The bill seeks to shield religious business owners from being taken to court for such instances. According to a CNN editorial titled ” Arizona’s shameful ‘right to discriminate’ bill” by Matthew Whittaker, , the bill protects all individuals, businesses and religious institutions from such discrimination lawsuits if they can show that their discriminatory actions were motivated by religious convictions.

However, in my opinion, the bill would do nothing more than offer prejudiced citizens protection from members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community who themselves dare to seek equal protection under the law.

There’s no denying that the  bill discriminated against not only gays an lesbians, but potentially to many groups of people. Some seem to believe that it is perfectly acceptable because it allows for more religious freedom, but the truth is no one has the “religious license” to discriminate. No matter what your religion tells you is right wrong, you do not have a license to discriminate against people because they have different views than you.

It may have been surprising for many that Arizona of all states would even propose such a law when it has not always had conservative positions on controversial issues. For example, in November 2010, they authorized the use of medicinal marijuana. However, in 2011 Arizona passed a similar discriminatory law,  an anti-immigration law that allowed authority to stop people and demand their identification papers if they had a suspicion that they were immigrants.

Legislation such as this is not unique to Arizona. Discrimination occurs not only in the United States but around the world. Russia and Uganda have recently passed extreme anti-gay legislations (and the United States opposed it by sending a delegation of openly-gay Olympians to Sochi).

Although the bill was not passed, it is ridiculous that it was even suggested in the first place.  Just as no one can discriminate against someone because of their religious beliefs, one should not be able to discriminate against another because of their sexual orientation or their religious opinions. It seems like for some to get more “religious freedom”, others have to suffer unnecessary consequences and that is simply wrong.

In the end, discrimination against anyone is wrong and does not represent what America is supposed to be about, and frankly, we have bigger problems to concern ourselves with than who is allowed to eat at a coffee shop and who isn’t.