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Comment by influx | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious what you think about the cake shop denying service to a gay couple? Is that ok since they are free to create their own non-bigoted cake shop?

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Whoa, I definitely think you’re over-rotating on this. No, I don’t think the cake shop was right to discriminate. This example is more like: Do I think it’s okay for a cake shop to refuse baking a cake for someone who comes into the shop every day and call the owners jewish pedophile lizard people?

Yes, I believe it’s okay for any business to refuse service to people who desire to damage that business.

Discrimination is fine and dandy for any business as long as it isn't part of a protected class (Whether it makes business sense to do so is another argument). The cake shop argument is whether LGBT people fall under a protected class, and the courts have continued to sidestep that issue.

I firmly believe LGBT people should be a protected class like race, and sex, but ultimately we need to have a ruling on that.

LGBT being a protected class or not was not at issue in the cake shop decision, since they were not denied service in general (they had been regular customers of that shop, and were always served). The issue was whether designing a custom cake for their wedding was considered artistic expression, and as such he had a right to refuse under the 1st amendment since you cannot compel speech.

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