tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post2496064275449053709..comments2024-03-28T00:01:43.037-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: A Victory of SortsGrimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-74119360528515525892018-06-05T08:15:45.175-04:002018-06-05T08:15:45.175-04:00I'd leave it to public opinion what to do abou...I'd leave it to public opinion what to do about a bakery that won't supply a gay-wedding cake. Personally, I'd be inclined to find another bakery if I found mine wouldn't serve gay people, as in, "Put down that donut, I don't serve the likes of you." On the other hand, I'd have no problem with a baker who wouldn't make a cake explicitly designed to celebrate a gay wedding if he feels he can't countenance gay marriage, for religious or any other reasons. I distinguish sharply between refusing to do business with people because you consider them outside your caste, vs. refusing to participate in a ceremony to whose meaning you refuse to give public approval. Similarly, I think a progressive baker may refuse to decorate a cake with the message "Donald Trump should rule the world" for a Republican rally. A Jewish baker needn't bake a cake with a swastika for a Nazi rally. I don't see another permissible approach if we want to avoid outlawing thought crimes. I realize that's a big "if."<br /><br />Normally I don't feel people's sexual choices are my business. I can perfectly well offer a gay couple medical benefits similar to my own on the ground that it's not up to me who should be included in one's household and protection, financial or otherwise. The problem with a wedding cake is that it is quite explicitly symbolic speech, and the speech can't easily be separated from the message that insistently does involve exactly the area where I think I have no business intruding. (But this is theoretical, since I don't in fact object to gay marriage or to gayness in general.)Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.com