Comment by umvi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by umvi | Hacker News Reader

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This still isn't the same though. It would be more like if I own a pancake shop and I make pancakes in the shape of a man and a woman kissing. Then a gay couple walks in and orders pancakes in the shape of two men kissing and I refuse on the grounds that it is not on the menu because I object to the content. I tell them they are free to buy pancakes of a man and a woman kissing if they so choose. How is that discrimination? They aren't being asked to leave, and they are free to buy the heterosexual kissing pancakes if they want to, just like everyone else. I am not refusing the client, just their particular bespoke request.

This is a highly contrived example, but it could be about anything, not just sexual orientation. A black guy walks into a white guy's barber shop and asks for a bespoke African haircut. The white barber refuses on the grounds that he doesn't think he would do a good job since he has never done one before and doesn't intend to learn how to do those types of haircuts. The barber doesn't tell the black guy to leave, but he tells him to pick a different haircut. Is this discrimination? Should the barber be compelled to perform the haircut he doesn't want to do against his will? What if he then does a bad job? Is that a hate crime?

The issue with these analogies is that while the creation of the wedding website is indeed a bespoke request, "wedding website" in general is a pretty well-defined category. And the thing about weddings is that you're usually in the market for your own. It's not like a gay couple would be fine to get a website for a straight wedding instead — if you won't design a website for a gay wedding, you are excluding those clients.

Is the barber analogy apt? Not really. White and Black haircuts are generally considered different "categories", and offering one does not generally confer an expectation to offer the other.

Is the pancake analogy apt? Not really. A pancake of "people kissing" is substitutable. It might not be the first choice for a gay couple, but there's no intrinsic reason they couldn't get a pancake with a flower on it instead. Now, if you were offering portraits of couples kissing, and you refused to do gay couples, that would be analogous — they're not going to get a portrait of a different couple, so this policy essentially means you don't accept gay customers.

In my opinion, the lesser of two evils in this case is not compelling business owners to perform services they object to. The US has a capitalist economy - if there is money to be made building gay wedding websites, then someone will almost certainly fill that niche and out-compete those who don't.

Going the compulsory route is going to lead to decreased religious freedoms and increased social discord between the secular and religious demographics of the country, IMO.

We've been down that road before. The Jim Crow south is a perfect example of what happens if you don't compel business owners to not discriminate. It doesn't prevent social discord, it just hides it — in the words of MLK, "a negative peace which is the absence of tension" rather than "a positive peace which is the presence of justice".

Anyway, in my original reply to you I mentioned a solution that prevents discrimination without compelling speech. If you feel you must discriminate in providing a service, then you can't provide that service.

I disagree this is the same road as Jim Crow. Jim Crow was refusing service based on color of skin. This is refusing service based on type of service.

> Anyway, in my original reply to you I mentioned a solution that prevents discrimination without compelling speech. If you feel you must discriminate in providing a service, then you can't provide that service.

In my opinion, that solution is a slippery slope that will quickly infringe on religious freedom. Soon: "Pastors/priests/bishops/etc. are no longer allowed to perform weddings unless they also perform gay weddings (against their beliefs). After all, if you feel you must discriminate in providing a service, then you can't provide that service."

So then you'd have lots of pastors refusing to perform any marriages to avoid doing something against their beliefs, which, in turn, would vindicate all the people opposed to gay marriage who were worried gay marriage would "infringe on the religious sanctity of marriage". Religious freedom down, social discord up.

No, this is absolutely refusing service based on a protected characteristic. The service is "designing a wedding website", and the policy is "we won't do that for gay couples".

There's an alternate scenario, of course. Soon: "web designers across the nation refuse to make wedding websites for same-sex couples". Religious freedom up, social discord also up. I'm not sure why you think it's only a one-way street; allowing religion to be used as a pretext to discriminate against marginalized groups is also surefire way to divide people.

It seems like we're rapidly approaching a point at which further debate is fruitless, so let me clearly state my position here: where religious freedom and equal protection clash, I am staunchly in favor of subordinating the former to the latter.

Your position is quite clear, I'm just saying I (and others) disagree with that position. For me, where religious freedom and equal protection clash, I tend to err on the side of religious freedom. If some jewish web designer is only interested in making websites for jewish weddings, I think they should have that right, even if it means turning away christian couples, gay couples, and other couples of protected status who want a non-jewish wedding website created. If some gay web designer is only interested in making gay wedding websites, they should similarly have that right without being compelled to create religious wedding websites.

I'm pretty sure the issue is that they won't make a wedding website for a gay couple. In your example they would still serve them, just not the exact product that you want.

Making a website for a gay couple and a straight couple requires the same sets of skills...

In both of your examples, the set of skills is different.

Baking a cake for a gay couple and a straight couple... same skills...

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