Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, etc., compare the baker who refuses to "do" a gay wedding with--
- A gay printer who refuses to print signs saying "God hates fags"
- A black baker who refuses to bake a KKK cake
- A Jewish baker who refuses to bake a swastika cake
But no, I take it the idea is that all these business owners are being alleged to be alike in having reasons of conscience to turn away customers. Nobody's saying the various things turned away are exactly alike. Huck & Co are arguing that the freedom of conscience in question shouldn't be spurned by liberals, since there are situations in which they will want to invoke it too.
This is at least worth thinking about. When should a business owner be able to turn away customers? We wouldn't want to restrict that freedom too much and I don't think we do. "No shirt, no shoes, no service." If you can turn away shoeless people presumably you can turn away all sorts of people.
The law gives businesses a lot of freedom, I take it, so long as their reasons are non-discriminatory.
Now, the gay printer, black baker, and Jewish baker wouldn't have discriminatory reasons to turn away the customers in question. It's not discriminatory to be offended by bigoted messages. So their freedom to turn away these customers is secure. But would a baker have non-discriminatory reasons to "do" opposite sex weddings and not same sex weddings? At least once gay marriage is legal in every state (in June, I hope), it doesn't sound as if any conservative bakers are going to be able to fuss about gay weddings. No worries--the liberal bakers are still going to be able to take a stand against swastika cakes.
Oh my god, that's actually a thing!
