James Van Der Beek challenges homophobia in Indiana, Funny or Die-style

By now, you’ve probably heard about the bill that was passed last week in Indiana. The “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” was signed by Mike Pence (R), Indiana’s state governor, and people are understandably not happy about it.

The bill, which was controversially revised Thursday, still essentially makes it legal for certain Indiana corporations and individuals to discriminate simply because their religion deems it OK—putting the LGBTQ community at risk of legalized discrimination.

Since the bill was signed, tech titans like Apple’s Tim Cook and politicians in Seattle, Connecticut and San Francisco, have protested the bill and its potential to encourage and even legalize homophobia in certain sectors. And now, Anna Camp and James Van Der Beek have spoken out against the act through pure satire.

In this Funny or Die segment, Van Der Beek and Camp are hosts of an Indiana home shopping network. As Funny or Die describes it, “Indiana’s new religious freedom law makes for some pretty uncomfortable home shopping” when callers are refused service by Van Der Beek and Camp’s characters.

Check out the video:

Van Der Beek had previously spoken out about the problematic law last week. He took to Facebook and wrote: “Given what happened in Indiana, it’s time for this ‪#‎ThrowbackThursday‬, along with what I tweeted about 4 years ago. ‘If you say you love this country for its freedoms, but want to deny gays the same freedoms you enjoy, you sound like a hypocrite. And – just to clarify – ‘freedom’ is the right to live how you choose. It’s not the right to choose how everyone else lives.’”

Way to go, James, for speaking up and for using your comedic chops to raise awareness.