Yesterday, I published a blog post about moral dilemmas regarding my graphics and heat printing business and it was filled with discriminatory remarks. Thank you to the commenter who called me out on it because I then looked up the law. I explained in the post how I would refuse to do projects with religious text and symbols, and I didn’t even know that was illegal. It was pretty stupid of me to assume that it wasn’t. I often see signs at businesses that say, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” It turns out those signs don’t hold up under the law and private businesses can’t pick and choose who they serve.
I think it’s very wrong when religious business owners discriminate against gays, trans, blacks, etc. I certainly don’t want to be in their company. I still view religion as hateful, but it’s going to have to be one of those “hate the belief and not the believer” situations.
Plus, everyone’s money spends the same.
Thanks again to the commenter because now I know the law before I ever actually encounter this situation with my business.
I’m sorry for my post. This was definitely a learning moment for me.
“It turns out those signs don’t hold up under the law and private businesses can’t pick and choose who they serve”
Up to a point. If a person walks in and asks politely for you to print up their KKK shirt, you have to get busy. If they walk in and say “hey faggot, print this”, you’re fully justified in telling them to take a hike and not come back. The law does not require you to tolerate abuse. That’s what those signs generally mean.
Learning from your mistakes? You’re never going to get a job in the Trump administration with that attitude!
I often see signs at businesses that say, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
I used to see those all over the southeast, decades ago, and figured they signaled racism. Now I don’t see them, and figure that means civil-rights pushback has succeeded, at least to some degree.
Did they never go away in Ohio, or have you seen a resurgence in recent years?
I still see them sometimes, usually in restaurants for some reason.
Hypothetically restaurants may have a need to run off drunks more than most other businesses, or to enforce shoes ‘n’ shirts health codes, so such signs may provide a psychological assist – “Ya see that? Now go!” – even without any legal force.
Or they could serve as a warning to non-whites, some of whom have to read them as “We don’t want your kind here!”
I thought refusal was only not permitted if it was on the basis of them belonging to a protected class (and as we know, religious rights seem to trump everything else these days). Like you can’t refuse someone’s business because they’re white, but you could still refuse to print a KKK flyer, the same way YouTube can take down a nazi video (but usually don’t). Similar to at-will employment – as long as you’re not firing them over their protected status, you can fire them for anything else, so employers just make shit up.
Did you find that not to be the case when you looked it up?
What I read gave the example of bakers with cakes. One bakery refused to make a cake because the customer wanted a phrase on it they considered profane. It was something against the bible. Another bakery refused to make a cake because it was for a same-sex couple’s wedding and they said it was against their religious beliefs. What the first bakery did was legal because they already had a policy in place about not doing cakes they considered profane. What the second bakery did was illegal because it was blatant discrimination against a certain group of people. So I guess it’s best for employers to have policies in place as long as it’s not discriminating against a group of people.
It was actually pretty interesting reading and I would like to study up a little more. I’m definitely still learning.
You are right though — many employers just make shit up which is terrifying.
Respect.
Also been there and done that myself and can so relate.
That quoted line & equivalents works so much better and is so much more helpful and effective than the alternatives of digging down deeper, ignoring awkardly and the other too frequent adopted alternatives.