Engaged gay couple Dave Mullins, second from left, and Charlie Craig, left, were joined by a small group of supporters in Lakewood on Saturday, August 4, 2012 to protest and boycott the Masterpiece Cakeshop. Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post.
Oh, the conservachristians have their collective knickers in a knot over cake, and the fervent desire to discriminate. We’ll start with Tony Perkins, the despicable leader of the Family Research Council.
Yesterday, on FRC’s “Washington Watch” program, Perkins hosted anti-LGBTQ activist Jon Scruggs, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom to discuss the Supreme Court arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Perkins told Scruggs that requiring business owners not to discriminate against LGBTQ people seemed like a “slippery slope and there’s really no end to what the government could then force you to do.”
No, it’s not a slippery slope, and there isn’t any ‘beastly’ thing awaiting which the government wishes to force on you. It’s very simple: if you have a public business, in which you contract with the public to supply ____, then you should supply it, with no prejudice towards any paying customer. It’s not like the government is gonna come knockin’ on your door and tell you that you have to host a gay wedding or anything.
Scruggs said he agreed because the attorneys arguing for nondiscrimination protections believe that calligraphers should be forced to write wedding vows and that bakers should have to write “bless this marriage” on a purchased cake if requested, which Scruggs called “scary things.”
Oh, all the gods ever! Calligraphers with a public business might have to copy wedding vows! ‘Bless this marriage’ might have to come out of an icing tube! The horror, why those are the scariest fucking things ever! Couldn’t possibly be anything scarier, no, no.
“That sounds like to me, John, that sounds like indentured servitude. You have no choice in the matter. Yes, they’re compensating you, they’re giving you something, but you have no say as to what you do with your talent, your ability and your skills,” Perkins said.
That is not indentured servitude, it’s not even close. You fucking white christians are so damn desperate to come across as though you suffer on par with those who have been enslaved. It’s beyond offensive, and it’s arrogant assholery to the nth degree. Stop it. Of course people have a say as to what you do with your talent, your ability, and your skills. If you want to exchange your talent, abilities, and skills for money, well, then you have to deal with people. All kinds of people. If a cake baker lives in fear of the day a non-hetero couple walks in to their store, well, they could turn their talents to writing cookbooks. Then they wouldn’t have to fear facing gay people in person, and they could pretend no one but straight christians buys their cakebook. I’m an artist. I’m an atheist, bisexual artist. I’ve had plenty of christians as clients, and if someone wanted me to do a prayer in calligraphy, I’d do it. Who the fuck cares? I don’t have to believe in that crap to do my job, and I don’t have to like my clients, either. That’s kind of how business works, fellas. I’ve also had clients who decided they weren’t comfortable working with an atheist (Christians always ask), and I don’t run off screaming and crying about it. It’s not even worth a shrug.
Scruggs agreed, adding, “And even worse, not just that type of servitude based off of something that’s irrelevant, but something that cuts against the core of who you are.”
Mmmm, and cutting against the core of a happy couple in search of cake, well, that’s okey dokey, right? It won’t hurt any of the bakers or calligraphers out there to just do their fucking job. They can always fall on their knees later and pray or something.
Via RWW.
Moving on to Mat Staver:
Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver joined Florida radio host Joyce Kaufman yesterday to discuss the Supreme Court arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, which Staver said dealt with whether a baker, Jack Phillips, would be “basically enslaved” to be a spokesperson for views he disagrees with by being required to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.
No, he would not be enslaved. Nor would Mr. Phillips be a spokesperson in any way, shape, or form. All he was asked to do was make a fuckin’ cake, something he does in his store, which caters to the public. Soon as the cake is done, his part in it is over.
You know, [Phillips] doesn’t bake Halloween cakes either. So, you know, it’s not like he’s just picking on one person or another, he’s an artist, he’s a person who doesn’t want his business and his life basically enslaved to be the mouthpiece for some issue or ceremony or message that violates his conscience and religious beliefs, and he should have the right to do so.”
Well, if you want to go that route, then the solution is simple: Mr. Phillips can stop making wedding cakes. Once again, there is no enslavement here. If Mr. Phillips wants to have a store in which he contracts with the public, then he must deal with the public. All of it.
Via RWW.
I’d like to think he could see the irony here considering what he would like the government to force LGBTQ people to do, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Christ of the Andes.
Sometimes I have Xtians wanting a cross on their braided horsehair bracelet or necklace. Whatever. I just tell them, send me what you want, and I’ll put it on there. Go out and get the exact cross or other religious symbol you want, and it will go on whatever you want, however you want, exactly how you want it. How hard is that?? So far, it has not caused me to suddenly become a slave, to “go against the core” of who I am, or to marry a dog or whatever it is they are so scared of.
A long time ago I realized I would never live long enough to make a braided horsehair bracelet for every single person on the planet who wants one made out of their own horse’s hair… so, I set a price, and I ask for payment up front. After all, I can’t discriminate based on eye color or something. So it’s very simple: you pay me, I make the bracelet (or necklace, key ring, earrings, bridle etc.). As I say, “I don’t braid until I get paid.” And I don’t give a flying fuck who you are or what you think or anything else about you: if you pay me, I’ll work for you. Period.
Although. I will say. I changed how I use Facebook so I don’t know that my customers are bigots, racists etc. I do not and can not care about that. Be whoever you are. I will continue to be who I am, no matter who or how you are. If you pay me, you get my services, and that is that. And you know what? That has never caused me to die or anything. Think about that. Yes, I’m looking at YOU, religious bigots.
Kestrel:
:Snort: Same here.
Absolutely the same here. And that’s the thing -- how many christians sell whatever on the net? They are surely selling to a lot of people they don’t approve of, but since they can’t see or talk to those people, it’s business as usual.
He doesn’t make Halloween cakes? Why the hell does he make wedding cakes? I bet that there have been a couple of non-virgin brides among his clientele. He should be stoning them to death instead of taking their orders.
I think the reasoning they’re using is something about the world being a poisonous place full of all sorts of mystical stains that can get on you for all sorts of nonsense reasons. All of this is hidden of course. You have to know it’s there or it’s… well, not.
If the courts allow babbledygook like this to interfere with the economy (some may think it doesn’t affect enough people to bother with) they’re going to have a hard time making it stick for just this case. Next up: flat earthers who won’t sell to anyone with out of state license plates because they’re demons from beyond the edge of the world, maybe?