David Harsanyi on Compulsory Cake Baking in Colorado
The Colorado Civil Rights Commission has ordered a suburban Denver baker named Jack Phillips to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples, finding that his religious objections do not supersede the state's anti-discrimination statutes. But Phillips isn't discriminating against gay Coloradans, argues David Harsanyi. Gay customers are free to shop in the bakery and purchase any of the cakes, cookies, and pastries they like, without ever being asked by anyone whom they love or what the gender equation is in their sex life.
Phillips simply does not want to participate in a very specific ceremony, because he holds authentic, well-documented religious objections to such an event, Harsanyi notes. And though some may find Phillips' objections lacking in merit, according to the blueprint of the American founding, religious concerns should take precedence over any "civil rights" of cake seekers.