What do you do in the United States of America when a local business can’t or won’t provide a product or service you’ve requested? Speaking only for myself, I walk out the door and spend my money somewhere else. (Or at least I did, back when businesses had doors you could walk in and out of.) I vote with my wallet. If they don’t want my business, fine. That’s capitalism, and it’s been working pretty well for the last few centuries.
Or at least that’s the way it used to work. But in the 21st century, that’s not enough. These days, a disgruntled customer needs to ruin the proprietor’s life.
Colleen Slevin, Associated Press:
A Colorado baker who won a partial victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple went on trial Monday in yet another lawsuit, this one involving a birthday cake for a transgender woman.
Autumn Scardina attempted to order the birthday cake on the same day in 2017 that the high court announced it would hear baker Jack Phillips’ appeal in the wedding cake case. Scardina, an attorney, requested a cake that was blue on the outside and pink on the inside in honor of her gender transition…
In opening arguments, a lawyer representing Phillips, Sean Gates, said his refusal to make Scardina’s cake was about its message, not discriminating against Scardina, echoing assertions made in Phillips’ legal battle over his refusal to make a wedding cake for Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins in 2012.
Sounds like it’s time for Colorado to open a second bakery.
If the name Autumn Scardina sounds familiar, that’s because this person has been hounding Jack Phillips for years. The same day that the Supreme Court decided to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in 2017, Scardina called to request that cake. He’s a target.
The Relentless 9-Year Assault on Jack Phillips Unmasks the True Threat of the ‘Equality Act’
Phillips didn’t do anything to this person. He didn’t go to Scardina’s house and scream through a bullhorn. He didn’t try to peel off Scardina’s scalp while shouting, “She’s a man, baby!” He hasn’t harmed Scardina in any way. He just politely declined to provide a service for religious reasons, and now he’s being persecuted for it. Again.
Doesn’t Autumn Scardina have anything better to do? Isn’t it enough just to be able to live your life in peace? Why do you need your choices to be affirmed by people you obviously hate? It’s just spite. It’s bullying. Scardina is the one with all the power in this scenario, and that power is being abused.
Did you notice that Scardina isn’t hounding a Muslim bakery? I don’t know how many people have gone to Muslim-owned bakeries and asked for gay wedding cakes and gender transition cakes and whatnot, but it never makes national news. It’s almost as if only certain religions are considered easy prey.
What if somebody in a Klan robe and a full-face swastika tattoo walked into Scardina’s law office and demanded a cake that said, “Happy Birthday, Adolf, You Were Right About Everything”? The guy would get kicked out, and rightly so. Then why doesn’t Phillips have the same right?
It’s not enough just to be free to change genders, or decide you don’t have a gender, or marry a person of whichever gender they’ve decided to be that day. Everybody else must stand up and applaud you for your bravery. And if they don’t, you have the power to punish them. You can make them pay for every single person who has ever hurt your feelings. It’s not about equality, it’s about revenge.
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