Because of "Religious Liberty", an Oregon bakery owned by Aaron and Melissa Klein refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. They have been ordered by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries to pay the couple $150,000. Oregon has an anti-discrimination law on the books that protects LGBT members the same as other minorities.
This of course has caused an outrage in conservative circles because some religious people feel it should be their religious right to refuse service to same-sex couples out of what they call their “religious liberty”.
Religious liberty gives all Americans the right to worship God the way they choose, and to believe or not to believe, in whatever religion they choose to believe in. What it does not do, is allow for-profit businesses to discriminate against anyone because of the owner’s religious beliefs. If that were allowed in this situation, then there would be a domino effect. How long would it take before some restaurant refused to seat a couple because of their obvious sexual orientation, or a hotel owner refusing to rent a room to a couple who they suspected of being gay? That would be just the tip of the iceberg, not only for gay people but for many other minorities.
Soon, a business would feel free to post signs outside their business, saying, “This is a Christian business, gays not allowed”.
This idea that a business should be allowed to refuse service to someone because they are gay, is based on the assumption by Christian conservatives that being gay is a choice, and some form of lifestyle. From a true gay person’s view – such as yours truly – this is not true, but proving it is difficult since it is something within a person, unlike skin color or some other characteristic that is on the outside. No one would try telling an African-American that he or she chose to be black and refuse service to him or her on that basis. Just because a characteristic is not something easy seen, or seen at all, through one’s eyes, does not make it any less so.
If Christian conservatives would give LGBT members the benefit of a doubt, as we have been saying all along, that our sexual orientation is not a choice but part of who we really are, then the idea that they should have the right to not only disapprove of us but also discriminate against us, would be inherently wrong.
For one thing, surely most Christians know they themselves do not choose their own sexuality, it is part of growing up into puberty, which is when one’s sexual orientation becomes apparent in one’s self-realization. Personally, I believe it is chosen even before puberty, if not at birth, as I remember being attracted to my own sex even as early as nine years-old.
Religious freedom cannot supersede personal freedom. If a same-sex couple chooses to commit to each other through marriage, it should not be up to the government on any level, or up to any religious body or person to tell them that their marriage is any less valid than a heterosexual couple’s marriage. To refuse service to that couple is to tell them that they should not have the right to their marriage, is no one’s right, no matter what their religious beliefs are, or even if they believe that couple’s sexual orientation is a choice or not. That is because it is not up to them to decide if being gay is a choice or not.
A person’s religious beliefs gives them the right to refuse to attend a same-sex wedding they have been invited to, because that is their personal freedom, that is unless they are in business to attend weddings as a photographer or a caterer for instance. However, their personal freedom does not give them the right to decide whom they will serve, at or through, any type of commercial business open to the public, because they disapprove of who they are, though it is because they are African-American, Hispanic, a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, or a gay or transgender person.
Surely, if a business was owned by an atheist and the atheist decided they would not serve someone because they were a Christian, the Christian community would be outraged, and rightfully so – I could just hear the talking heads on Fox News now, exploding with outrage.
Thing is, being Christian is a choice, as it should be, and no one should, nor do they have the right to refuse service to a Christian, even if it is a choice. However being gay is not, and I do not care if those on the Christian right believe it or not, because my civil rights and the rights of my gay brothers and sisters should not be decided on anyone’s beliefs, whatever those beliefs are.
The pursuit of happiness is a many splendor thing and it should be the equal right of us all, as Americans, free to make our own choices for our own lives, without prejudice and with all due respect.
This is a republish from my website: Fidlerten Place