Gay Cake Lawsuits are Dumb but Christian Bakers no More Oppressed than any other Citizen
Here is a story in the Huffington Post about anti-gay bakers and how they are not the same as Kim Davis, who is a public official. Check out the lesbian brides on top of the cake in this picture. I laughed when I saw it because they look like soft butch twin sisters getting married.
I don’t think lawsuits against anti-gay bakeries or others are productive for the LGBT community and have helped to create the religious freedom law backlashes we have seen in places like Indiana. But the bottom line is that all citizens must serve people who offend them in some way at some point.
If you want to refuse to bake a gay cake, then you also have no right to force a gay, lesbian, or atheist business owner to serve/employ people who follow religions (Islam, Mormonism, Judaism, Christianity for example) that perhaps offend their personal moral sensibilities which they have to under the law. If you want to know why I find Judaism and Christianity offensive, it is because I have a zero-tolerance policy for people who are apologists for texts that justify rape, slavery, and murder. Taking an absolute moral position based on simple right and wrong is as dear to me as anyone’s religion. Some aspects of the world’s religions offend me as much as same-sex marriage offends you (and no Jesus didn’t deny the old testament, he supported it). Religious beliefs aren’t anything special. The universe does not revolve around your special religious beliefs over other people’s moral beliefs, and these laws don’t either. If this baker wants to deny my business and have laws to make this legal, then the government should not be able to force me to make products for her religious ceremonies when I know she is teaching this to her children:
http://www.evilbible.com/Murder.htm
Or we can all agree to get along as I am not forcing her to participate in a lesbian threeway (not my thing), and she isn’t making me go to her church, which I would find backward and morally suspect. Otherwise, we can all go back to whites only diners if this is what we all want. Which would be horrible. It’s not libertarian unless all people are allowed to exercise all their prejudices/morals. No “special rights” for the religious that others do not have. I personally want the greater good supported by anti-discrimination laws because, you know, blacks, gays, and religious minorities need to work in order to eat.
Also, for the record, one of the reasons the Oregon couple received such a large settlement from the bakers is that the bakers published their personal info online. The lesbian couple received death threats and could have lost custody of their foster children because of it. So it was much more serious than just not receiving a cake. That is a legitimate lawsuit, in my opinion. In other situations I would prefer to let it slide and write a Yelp review because these bigots have only received huge donations in the wake of these standoffs.