Bake Slaves: Forced By The Govt To Make Cakes That Violate Their Beliefs
First it was bakers who are Christians who had the state come down on them for their refusal to make wedding cakes for gay couples; now there's a bakery in Colorado under investigation for refusing to make an anti-gay cake.
From KDVR: "Man takes legal action after Denver baker refuses to make anti-gay cake." A religious discrimination complaint has since been filed with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.
In case it's important for anyone to know, I'd run the bakery that refused to make the anti-gay cake. However, what's important overall is that we should not be allowing the state to force businesses to do business that violates their beliefs.
There have to be some exceptions, like if you're a hospital owned by people who dislike, oh, the Irish or people from Toronto, and somebody comes in having a heart attack.
But as law professor Jonathan Turley points out:
Bakers and photographers view themselves as engaged in a form of speech generally. The loss of a bright-line defining free speech has meant that we are finding ourselves increasingly on a slippery slope of speech regulation. On the other hand, we fought hard to guarantee accommodation for all races in places of public accommodation. Stores are not allowed to ban black customers under the same rationale. The question is whether there is a difference between refusing to serve customers on the basis for sexual orientation generally as opposed to taking an active or direct role in a same-sex wedding.
And actually, horrible as it is, I think private businesses should be allowed to exclude customers if they so desire. I would not patronize these businesses and I would probably organize boycotts and pickets of them. But also support what should be their right to choose who they do and do not do business with.
Come Amy we know you're lying. You wouldn't run the ant-gay bakery due to ethical reasons. Too many carbs plus unless you can stick a cake in the microwave you would protest it.
Ppen at January 20, 2015 9:58 AM
I'd run a baconry.
And hah - you got me on the microwaving thing. (For the uninitiated, I don't cook; I heat. I even make bacon in the microwave -- in a Pyrex bowl, covered, to retain the grease. Because the grease is the point.)
Amy Alkon at January 20, 2015 11:35 AM
This guy is doing a poor job proving his point.
If he wanted to do things right, he'd tell the baker his church was having a pray-the-gay-away event they needed a cake for. And he'd request no inscription -- just a cake.
Refusing service to a person is different from refusing to put profanity on a cake. This guy wanted a "gay slur."
Almost no bakery will put profanity on a cake. I had two bakers turn down my request for a certain Game of Thrones quote for my viewing party. Fair enough, my request was profane and inappropriate. Once I changed my inscription, I had no problem procuring my cake.
sofar at January 20, 2015 11:47 AM
asking her to bake a cake with an anti-gay message she won’t fully repeat to this day
You'll forgive me if I fail to take her at her word. Maybe it is upsetting to her, but was it beyond the pale?
What if I were a Muslim and I wanted a quotation from Grand Ayatollah Sistani that gays should be killed in the “worst, most severe way possible”?
Should the vendor be forced to make that cake?
Of course, the full takeaway should be that these lawsuits are about getting money for "free".
I R A Darth Aggie at January 20, 2015 12:07 PM
Though some people seem to treat Game of Thrones with a reverence bordering on worship it is not a religion and is not protected under the Colorado law. Yet...
That said, the Colorado anti-discrimination law is so broadly (I'd say "poorly") written that the action against the bakery has a good chance of succeeding.
parabarbarian at January 20, 2015 12:30 PM
From the weekend's WSJ:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-immigration-and-islam-europes-crisis-of-faith-1421450060?KEYWORDS=europe+and+immigration
"In France, antiracism set itself squarely against freedom of speech. The passage of the 1990 Gayssot Law, which punished denial of the Holocaust, was a watershed. Activist lobbies sought to expand such protections by limiting discussion of a variety of historical events—the slave trade, colonialism, foreign genocides. This was backed up by institutional muscle. In the 1980s, President François Mitterrand’s Socialist party created a nongovernmental organization called SOS Racisme to rally minority voters and to hound those who worked against their interests. "
"Speech codes" are a political tool that self-respecting pirates would not approve of.
Bob in Texas at January 20, 2015 1:22 PM
"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."
Problem solved. You want coconut in your frosting? NO CAKE FOR YOU!
drcos at January 20, 2015 2:30 PM
Though some people seem to treat Game of Thrones with a reverence bordering on worship it is not a religion and is not protected under the Colorado law.
I never said that. Read my post. Read it carefully.
The law protects *consumers* that fall into protected groups. It does not protect messages written on cakes, whether it's religious in nature, or about a TV show.
sofar at January 20, 2015 2:54 PM
1. On a practical level, who would want ANYONE hostile to his or her family to make FOOD?
2. If I was a baker, I'd hope my competitors refused to make cakes for gays, for Catholics, for left-handed people, etc. -- because I'd be in business to make money, and I"m not a moron.
3. Once again I'm reminded that other people have far more time on their hands than I do.
Kevin at January 20, 2015 4:49 PM
Bakers and photographers view themselves as engaged in a form of speech generally.
Wait...what?? Bakers? Really?
Not to disparage bakers, but 'engaged in free speech'??? I comment in blogs, does that mean that I can view myself as 'engaged in a form of journalism'???
This just reeks of the whole 'we are all special' mentality.
DrCos at January 21, 2015 3:53 AM
Somebody is reading their Alinsky. Make them live up to their own rules, do things that are enjoyable for your side. This fits both.
spqr2008 at January 21, 2015 6:34 AM
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