Fox & Friends: Are We A "Free Country" If Businesses Can't Discriminate Against Gay Customers?

[Cali_Democrat]

Fox News continued its defense of anti-LGBT discrimination by businesses, conducting a one-sided interview with the owners of a now-shuttered bakery that refused to provide a lesbian couple with a wedding cake and suggesting that those who oppose anti-LGBT discrimination fail to display "tolerance."

On September 4, Fox & Friends invited Aaron and Melissa Klein, the co-owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa. The Kleins closed their storefront in the wake of a civil rights complaint that alleged the couple violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, which prohibits discrimination against LGBT individuals in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Co-host Steve Doocy suggested that refusing to serve the lesbian couple didn't indicate a bias against LGBT people, just opposition to same-sex marriage. "[Y]ou didn't refuse to serve gay people, simply the gay weddings, right?" Doocy asked Melissa Klein, as if the lesbian couple's sexual orientation was irrelevant to Klein's refusal to serve them. Klein undercut Doocy's suggestion that she and her husband lacked anti-LGBT animus when she replied that she "can't participate in the wedding" because "homosexuality is - the behavior - is a sin."

Making no distinction between personal religious belief and public business practices, co-host Gretchen Carlson then used the closure of Sweet Cakes by Melissa to question whether we're still a "free country"

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/04/fox-amp-friends-are-we-a-free-country-if-busine/195717

Video at link.

[Jefferson23]

1. They never fail to fail.

Idiots.

[shenmue]

2. Gay people want chocolate cake

They must be stopped!

[Ohio Joe]

3. This should shock no one...

That the media arm of the teapuglican party tries to pass off such blatant bullshit has become their norm.

Fuckers.

[lpbk2713]

4. Faux Snooze -- the home of twisted logic.

It must really hurt to be that stupid.

[Supersedeas]

6. logic?

[awoke_in_2003]

5. They are free to have their opinions...

and people are free to choose whether or not to do business with them. The people have spoken.

[tabasco]

7. Hateful, rancid fuckers the lot of them

How they poison our world!

[whoiswithme]

8. I think it's a valid question

We discriminate for different reasons all day long. People with poor credit are discriminated against by paying higher mortgage rates. People with a poor payment record can't get an apartment. People who get in more accidents pay more for car insurance. People who are fat or ugly are passed over for jobs all the time.

We as a society have decided that certain types of discrimination are not allowed. We do tend not to allow discrimination against people, just actions. Given that quite a few people see homosexuality as an action, not a choice, I can see the debate over this topic.

I will point out that the precedence is a dangerous one. Forcing someone to PARTICIPATE in a ceremony they don't want to be a part of is a bad idea. In the case of the wedding photographer she would have been a part of the ceremony. Next time it might be a black photographer that is forced into going to a KKK rally.

[tabasco]

9. See post #7

and crawl back under your rock.

[Sheldon Cooper]

10. lol