Quote:Public access, equal treatment under the law, equal opportunities all of that yea. But when you tell a private individual or private business they can not refuse service for whatever reason you are now using the force of the state in a manor it was never intended.

You and I are so close on this, yet so far apart. A business that opens its doors should open its doors to everyone, period, but that business cannot be compelled to act against the owners' morals. For instance, if a gay couple walks into a conservative, religious bakery and asks for a plain white wedding cake, there is absolutely nothing objectionable about that cake, and it should be made. That said, if that same gay couple walks into that same bakery and wants a rainbow flag with the words "GAY MARRIAGE 4EVER" decorated onto it, the bakery should be within their rights to say that that message violates their personal ethics, and while the couple is welcome to choose different decorations or take a plain cake and decorate it themselves, the bakery will not fulfill that request.

 

It's along the same veins of not forcing a black-owned bakery to make a Confederate flag cake, a Jewish bakery to make a swastika cake, or expecting a Muslim bakery to make bacon-wrapped donuts. If you want to open the doors of your business, you open them to everyone, but no one should be able to force a business owner to take a special production order that would compromise their morals.

---