Desperately needing some clear blue water and the battle for equal rights

I get a serious mix of stuff popping up on my social media feed. Here's the latest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/opinion/david-brooks-religious-liberty-and-equality.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=0


Two quotes from the above commentary by David Brooks:

"This deviation seems unwise both as a matter of pragmatics and as a matter of principle. In the first place, if there is no attempt to balance religious liberty and civil rights, the cause of gay rights will be associated with coercion, not liberation. Some people have lost their jobs for expressing opposition to gay marriage. There are too many stories like the Oregon bakery that may have to pay a $150,000 fine because it preferred not to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony. A movement that stands for tolerance does not want to be on the side of a government that compels a photographer who is an evangelical Christian to shoot a same-sex wedding that he would rather avoid."

And the second quote:

"In cases of actual bigotry, the hammer comes down."

I'm no expert on law. But, it seems like if you are a business open to the public, you have to accept business as it comes to you. Now, I know of a contractor who would refuse to take a job now and then if the potential customer wanted him to 'match the paint color exactly to this little throw pillow'. This refusal was because the contractor wasn't a decorator. What the potential customer really needed was a decorator for picking out colors and doing design. The contractor then comes in and does the decided upon design work.

It gets trickier dealing with the whole 'baking a cake for a same-sex wedding' scenario. If the customer is asking for a specific cake design and color of frosting that the baker just doesn't have the skill to pull off (like a giant 6 foot high cake that looks like a mountain range in Rocky Mountain National Park complete with built in water feature - truly, a cake I would personally LOVE), then the baker could say, "Hey, that is a seriously cool idea but I just don't have the skills and the kitchen to pull it off. But, we could do this other type of cake I've had a lot of success with and rave reviews on. Otherwise, I know this very artistic baker down the street who might be able to pull off the mountain range cake concept." This is a business exchange.

Now, let's take this a step further. Let's say a baker is asked to make a cake that looks like a giant pair of breasts. Probably not that hard to pull off (I personally love to bake cakes but really prefer to eat the frosting, but I digress). A baker could just make two large round cakes and frost them accordingly. Now, our baker in question thinks this is weird and offensive because cakes shouldn't look like female anatomy. But, the baker doesn't have a good business reason to reject the cake. So...the breast cake gets made. (Besides, it's breasts. Something like 50% of the world has them. And secretly our fictional baker digs this project....but I digress...)

Now, a young couple walks into a bakery, one person is of African American descent and the other is of northern European descent and is also American (ie they are black and white). They ask to have a wedding cake made that is very easy to make and very traditional. If the baker said, "Nope. Won't do it. You both shouldn't get married; you're not meant to be together;" the baker would be called a racist and this kind of stuff was a piece of what the civil rights movement of the 1960's strived so hard to see outlawed.

But, today, if that couple above was two guys, the baker could say, "Nope, not doing it. You bother me and creep me out because my religion says that it's ok to be bothered and creeped out by you."  I really don't see how this is not discrimination.  There are still people in this country who are bothered and creeped out by racially mixed marriages, but that shouldn't prevent those marriages from happening or from those couples be refused services anywhere.

Yes, "in cases of actual bigotry, the hammer comes down". And refusing to serve a couple because they happen to be 'same-sex' is bigotry.

Can I go snorkeling now on a beautiful what sand beach with lots of happy fish, please? No, not yet. I have to pay to re-do my kitchen first. Or I could just tell my contractor, "I can't pay you because it's against my religion because my personal beliefs say that spending time on white sand beaches snorkeling with fish is more important." Nah...wouldn't do that because it would be the wrong thing to do. I'll just have to wait for some quality lake time up in the woods.

Peace.
PS the photo above I shot from my kayak on my favorite lake last summer