Better Jail Than Gays
I posted about a baker last weekend who refused to make gay wedding cakes because he doesn’t support gay marriage and a judge ordered he had to do this or he would be in violation of the law. Since then, the baker, Jack Phillips, says he’d rather go to jail than bake a cake for anything gay wedding related.
“I do what I do because I love doing what I do and I believe it’s what God’s designed for me to do,” Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, told Fox News’ Elisabeth Hasselbeck via Raw Story. “I don’t plan on giving up my religious beliefs … I don’t feel that I should participate in their wedding, and when I do a cake, I feel like I’m participating in the ceremony or the event or the celebration that the cake is for.”
To be perfectly honest about this, I’m not certain he should be jailed or fined for not wanting to serve gay weddings because of his religious beliefs. I think he’ll regret this someday, but he has a right to believe anything he wants. I do think his feelings should be made known far and wide, and I do think he should be ordered, by a judge, to post a sign in his front window stating that he refuses to serve gay weddings, in full disclosure, in big bold print, so all the world can see this. In fact, I would like to see a landmark in front of his building erected fifty years from now stating there once stood a bakery in this spot that refused to bake wedding cakes for gay people so no one ever forgets what it was like right now. I want people to remember that there were, indeed, men like Jack Phillips who continued to persecute us even though we never did one single thing to hurt him.
But I personally wouldn’t want a cake made by him, and I don’t know many gay people in my circles who would even want to be associated with someone like him.
50+ Celebs Come Out
According to this, 53 celebrities have come out this year. And according to most of the headlines I’ve read in the mainstream media, they’ve all come out “as gay.” Seriously. “As Gay.”
One thing is certain. The act of coming out in 2013 remains as powerful as ever. Though tolerance, acceptance and equality have made great strides this year, there are still many pockets of the U.S., and certainly many countries abroad where LGBT people are forced to hide because being open about their sexuality would threaten their lives and their livelihoods.
That one paragraph is very powerful for me, and all LGBTI people. But I think as more do come out we won’t be reading headlines they came out “as gay” and there’s going to be more tolerance to the point where it doesn’t matter all that much anymore. At least I hope that’s how it will work.
You can read more about the 53 here.
Obama Defends Gays
At the funeral of Nelson Mandela, President Barack Obama made an eloquent speech about tolerance and how people are still being persecuted for “who they love.” You don’t hear things like this often, especially on a global level at something this significant.
For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.
At least I think he was defending gays. You can read more here.