I don't understand/follow what's going on in Indiana. A private enterprise is free to deny service to anyone they choose... what is the point/justification for this law?
There are cases like this going on in the UK & Ireland and have been some in the past. They mostly involve Christian businesses and the gay community. One involved a Christian hotel refusing to give a gay couple a room, they lost in court and had to pay loads of money to the couple I think. There is one going on with a bakery as a gay rights group wanted a cake of some sort which went against the bakeries beliefs, I expect the bakery to have to pay out again.
Religious freedom is already protected under the constitution. This is just a stupid law by some bible thumpers who want to discriminate against gays. I actually think it's impressive that the tide has turned so much in favor of gay rights in the US that the vast majority of people and even huge companies like Apple and Walmart are vehemently opposed to this. Also doing something that could piss off and turn away a good chunk of your potential customer base is just bad business.
It takes this guy like 6 minutes to finally say the law allows businesses to deny service to gay couples. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDhEwTbq5aI
It's so unpopular they're now backtracking and changing the bill to include protections for the LGBT community. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/indiana-lgbt-protections_n_6992184.html So now that their gay bashing bill got neutered, what's the point of it? Religious freedom is already constitutionally protected.
A majority of the country now support gay marriage, yet only 30% of republicans do. They seem like overly nostalgic whiners that can't handle progress or change. Catering to an archaic core demographic isn't going to deliver wins.
Just to satisfy my curiosity - when do you expect marriages between more than 2 people are going to be legal if gay marrages are legal already? I just ask where is the limit of the openness of the society. How far we can go from the point we've started.
In the United States, you can get married if you're an atheist. Obviously atheism is not something endorsed by the Bible, but there don't seem to be legislators running around passing laws that ban atheist marriage or allows private business to discriminate against atheists. So it's not really about open vs. closed at all. It's about sheer hypocrisy and bigotry.
it's all about living in a progressive society. back in the day, marriage was a religious ceremony. it doesn't have to be anymore now.
So legitimate question here. Would a bakery have the right to refuse service to the KKK, Muslim extremist group, political party, or the Westboro Baptist Church? Lets say the Westboro Baptist Church wants to cater a funeral protest.
At the federal level, you can't refuse service based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability. Beyond that, it depends on the state that you're in. For example, there was a fairly recent case in Georgia where a bakery was ruled to have violated the rights of the KKK by refusing them service for a cake celebrating their organization's anniversary. Also, the federal and state RFRAs do not usually include for-profit business as having the right to refuse service on religious grounds. That's likely the reason the bakery lost to the KKK. They tried to claim it violated their religious freedom and the state didn't recognize that in situations involving a for-profit business.
You no longer have to be concerned with the governor here running for president as a result of this idiotic law. You should be very thankful for that.