No Cake For You

[Ogre]

Indiana's Hard Truth:  Dissent is No Longer Tolerated


On Tuesday, the owners of an Indiana pizza parlor made a terrible mistake. The O’Connor family, which runs Memories Pizza in the small town of Walkerton, told a local ABC affiliate that while they would “never deny” service to a gay couple or a customers of another religion, “they just don’t agree with gay marriages” and would not provide pizzas for a gay wedding if asked.

If you’ve been following the wild-eyed, hair-on-fire debate over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act—a law widely labeled as “anti-gay” and berated as “bigotry” by celebrities ranging from Apple CEO Tim Cook to pop star Miley Cyrus—you won’t be surprised by what happened next.

Within minutes, an Internet mob descended upon Memories Pizza. Twitter users, including an Indiana high school golf coach, threatened to burn the place down. Others hijacked the restaurant’s Yelp page with gay porn and personal threats, including the following gem: “Oh yeah, I’m going to kill your Jesus. Try and stop me.” (News flash: Somebody already tried that once.) As radio host Dana Loesch reported, the O’Connors also received death threats—so many, in fact, that they’re considering closing their restaurant.

Charming, is it not? Welcome to “tolerance” in 2015. The Great Hoosier Gay Pizza Conflagration, sadly, is only the latest bout of hysteria surrounding a rather anodyne law. Earlier, in a Washington Post op-ed, Apple’s Cook had labeled the RFRA “dangerous,” calling for a boycott of Indiana—perhaps forgetting, in his fervor, that he gladly does business in violently anti-gay Saudi Arabia. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, not to be outdone, banned “non-essential” state travel to the benighted midwestern state. (Nothing says freedom like panicked bans and closed borders!) Meanwhile, writing for Time magazine, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called Indiana’s RFRA “an American version of Sharia law” that would make “a single religion’s teachings ... the law of the land.”

If you know anything about RFRA laws, this is patently absurd. Nineteen other states have RFRAs; the federal government adopted one in 1993. Several prominent proponents of gay rights and gay marriage have defended Indiana’s proposed law—you can read them here, here, and here—explaining that it simply allows religious minorities a day in court if they feel their conscience or First Amendment freedoms have been violated.

These facts don’t matter, of course. It has become increasingly clear that the Indiana blow-up has nothing to do with the details of any law. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar may not realize it, but he pretty much wrote the “Stairway to Heaven” of opinion columns: The true message is there, but only if you read it backwards. The New Sharia isn’t coming from powerful and intolerant Christians. It’s coming from the activist left, closely allied with big business and government. It’s a coalition that, increasingly, will not tolerate dissent of any kind.

Conservative Christians, it appears, can’t just live and let live when it comes to gay marriage. They have to actively support and participate in it, lest the “You Must Approve” coalition swoop in and try to ruin their business, their reputation, and their life. This is sad. It is strange. It certainly reflects a stunning insecurity. It’s also happening across the country: For refusing to participate in same-sex weddings, an Oregon bakery was shuttered, a Washington florist may lose her business, and photography studios, wedding venues and t-shirt shops have been targeted with closure, fines, and crippling legal bills.

You might think religious objections to gay marriage are silly or outdated. You might even think that people who decline to serve gay weddings are misguided jerks. That’s your right; it’s a free country, at least for now. Personally, I think most religious objections to gay marriage are understandable and reasonable, not “bigoted.” On the same token, if any of my gay friends want me to bake a cake for their wedding, I’ll bake the best darn wedding cake this side of Gene Hackman. (Actually, that’s a lie. I would probably do what I usually do in social occasions that require the bringing of food, which would be to buy something at a fancy store and pretend that I made it myself.)

But then again, I value freedom and diversity. The New Sharia does not. In fact, many Americans seem to have lost a basic understanding of how freedom works. Remember high school civics class, where Lesson One is that your First Amendment rights don’t really exist unless they are also applied to people whose ideas you might find wrong, even abhorrent? Something tells me they don’t teach that anymore. To be fair, maybe they don’t have time, given their full slate of privilege detector tests, trigger warnings, and general Airings of Grievances.

It’s sad to see people make monsters out of their neighbors. Watching the Internet mobs descend upon Memories Pizza—as well as the media and business mobs that descended upon Indiana in general—made me wonder if any of these enraged, fire-breathing laptop warriors ever step out of the house and look around. All across America, in grocery stores, coffee shops, schools, and parks, gay and straight people not only coexist, they get along. They are friends. Face to face, for the most part, they have goodwill and a sense of community—or, at the very least, a sense of polite respect.

We have, for now, a functioning civil society. But with the rise of the “You Must Approve” mob and its powerful partners, cracks are beginning to show. Ironically, the freedoms that the mob seeks to destroy—the freedoms of religion, speech, and association—are the very same freedoms that separate us from places like Saudi Arabia. If certain groups get their way, they might not be around for long.

Link

[AUJarhead]

You're right.  They would be well within their rights to refuse service to a marriage like that if they choose to. 

I'm guessing you'd be ok with the Westboro Baptist Church forcing a gay florist to arrange a new wreath for their front door too, right?  Since we're all into equality and such.  Or maybe we should force a Muslim artist to draw a sketch of Mohammad for me to hang over my fireplace.

Oh, I really don't give a shit if they deny service or not.  I just find it amusing when they say they will deny the SSM a catering for religious reasons, but don't take anything else into account.

And we both know what would happen if you forced a Muslim artist to draw Mohammad..  You'd be called a racist.

[WiregrassTiger]

The bandwagon is full. I find it hard to believe that Izzo or Calipari really care anything about this.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/final-four-coaches-release-statement-on-indianas-new-law/ar-AAajTKT?ocid=DELLDHP

Final Four coaches release statement on Indiana's new law

Jordan Heck, Sporting News
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo speaks during a news conference at the NCAA college basketball tournament in Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday, March 28, 2015. Michigan State plays Louisville in a regional final on Sunday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)   © (AP Photo/Seth Wenig Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo speaks during a news conference at the NCAA college basketball tournament in Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday, March 28, 2015. Michigan State plays Louisville in a regional final on Sunday. (AP Photo/Seth…

All four head coaches of the Final Four teams in the Men's NCAA Tournament released a statement Wednesday, defending the NCAA's stance on Indiana's new religious freedom law.

"We are aware of the recent actions in Indiana and have made a point to talk about this sensitive and important issue among ourselves and with our teams. Each of us strongly supports the positions of the NCAA and our respective institutions on this matter — that discrimination of any kind should not be tolerated. As a part of America's higher education system, college basketball plays an important role in diversity, equality, fairness and inclusion, and will continue to do so in the future."

MORE: Making the case for each Final Four team | UK's season of supremacy |  Comparing the Final Four's recruiting classes

The four coaches, Kentucky's John Calipari, Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Wisconsin's Bo Ryan and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, made the statement during a conference call. Their statement defends the one the NCAA released soon after the bill was signed.

NASCAR, the Big Ten, the NBA/Pacers/WNBA/Fever, and Colts owner Jim Irsay have all released similar statements. In addition, UConn coach Kevin Ollie says his staff won't attend the Final Four and USC athletic director Pat Haden said he won't attend the College Football Playoff committee meeting in Indiana.

[DnATL]

The bandwagon is full. I find it hard to believe that Izzo or Calipari really care anything about this.

Zone only - none of that gay-ass man-to-man defense

[bgreene]

Let's say a gay couple owns and operates a bakery. A member of the KKK local chapter comes in and buy a cake for the grand wizard celebration.  He tells the baker that he wants the cake to show them hanging a gay man. Now, this owner who has protested with all his activist buddies refuses to make the cake for the man.  He says he has the right to not make a cake depicting a gay man being hung (save your jokes). So, do they side with the gay man or the KKK who want the cake?

[Snaggletiger]

Let's say a gay couple owns and operates a bakery. A member of the KKK local chapter comes in and buy a cake for the grand wizard celebration.  He tells the baker that he wants the cake to show them hanging a gay man. Now, this owner who has protested with all his activist buddies refuses to make the cake for the man.  He says he has the right to not make a cake depicting a gay man being hung (save your jokes). So, do they side with the gay man or the KKK who want the cake?

Uuuhh huh huh....huh huh huh....you said hung...uuhh huh huh huh.

[WiregrassTiger]

Let's say a gay couple owns and operates a bakery. A member of the KKK local chapter comes in and buy a cake for the grand wizard celebration.  He tells the baker that he wants the cake to show them hanging a gay man. Now, this owner who has protested with all his activist buddies refuses to make the cake for the man.  He says he has the right to not make a cake depicting a gay man being hung (save your jokes). So, do they side with the gay man or the KKK who want the cake?

First of all, gay or not, I take exception to your talking about hung men. What have I done to you?

[bgreene]

He bangs

[WiregrassTiger]

It's a growing trend. It's like we are in a communist state. Go against the government wishes, get fined. No room for beliefs outside of what they determine "the norm". I wonder if this couple thought about trying a different florist?

This is freaking ridiculous. And for all of the people that can afford to go out of business and maybe cash in on the gov't early, I applaud them. I hope that they get on the government dole rather than bowing to demands that are against their beliefs.

This trend is both anti-American and anti-business.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/85k-raised-for-washington-florist-who-refused-gay-couple/ar-AAat0zp?ocid=DELLDHP
85K raised for Washington florist who refused gay couple
RICHLAND, Wash. — A florist in eastern Washington state fined $1,000 for refusing to sell a same-sex couple wedding flowers and also facing a consumer-protection lawsuit has netted more than $85,000 in a crowdfunding campaign.

The Seattle Times reports (http://bit.ly/1GztB9a) that nearly half of the money on the gofundme.com page set up in February for 70-year-old Barronelle Stutzman came in the last several days.

Supporters compare Stutzman's benefit page to an Indiana pizza shop that raised more than $800,000 after closing when the owner said the shop wouldn't cater a gay wedding.

Stutzman, owner of Arlene's Flowers and Gifts in Richland, Washington, received the fine in Benton County Superior Court in March after refusing to serve a same-sex couple in 2013.

Stutzman says same-sex weddings go against her Southern Baptist beliefs.