If you own a business, you have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. That is, unless it angers a group of designated victims. Then you will feel the full power of the state over your very existence. You will learn the limits of religious freedom in 2015.
Cheryl Wetzstein, Washington Times:
Lawyers for Oregon bakery owners embroiled in a gay marriage lawsuit have asked for the case to be reopened to see if it was tainted by bias.
Officials with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) have been in close contact with Basic Rights Oregon (BRO), the state’s leading gay-rights advocacy group, according to emails released through a public-records request for the media arm of a conservative think tank.
BOLI handled the Sweet Cakes by Melissa discrimination case, which resulted in a judge assessing an interim order assessing a $135,000 fine against owners Aaron and Melissa Klein.
More from Kelsey Harkness at the Daily Signal, who broke the story:
Communications obtained through a public records request show employees of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries—which pursued the case against the Kleins—participating in phone calls, texting, and attending meetings with Basic Rights Oregon, the largest LGBT advocacy group in the state…
It is unclear what occurred during these meetings and phone calls, but the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries commissioner, who is in charge of determining the Kleins’ final punishment, met with Basic Rights Oregon on multiple occasions and purchased tickets costing hundreds of dollars benefiting the advocacy group.
In summary: a government agency colluded with a political advocacy group to drive people out of business for holding religious beliefs they didn’t like.
In the United States of America.
If you’re in favor of this, you are, by definition, a fascist. Fascists love to play the victim as they’re justifying their brute-force attacks on other people’s rights. You’re willing to drive this family into poverty to send a message to anybody else who dares to cross you. You can’t change their minds, so instead you’ll destroy them.
Wave a rainbow flag all you like, but it won’t hide your brownshirt.
(Hat tip: Ace)