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Friday
March 29th, 2024
L&T Opinions Page

earl watt mugL&T Publisher Earl Watt

 

Never trust anyone who tries to show sympathy in one sentence and then calls the same person discriminatory in the next sentence.

The Denver Post’s opinion on the continued harassment of Jack Phillips, the cake baker who won his case in the Supreme Court as having the right as a private business owner to not participate in actions he believes violate his faith shows the reason the media is not trusted today.

They say his rights end when his business begins.

Several cases have shown this not to be true, including the Hobby Lobby case of providing contraceptives to its employees.

Here is what a business owner cannot do — discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex or national origin.

Asking a business to participate in the celebration of a wedding when that wedding goes against religious views is not discriminatory. Forcing him to make their cake would be.

The case is complicated. There are rights on both sides to be considered. And there are times when our rights come into conflict like this one where someone will lose.

Now, the new challenge is to force Phillips to create a cake celebrating gender transition. Again, Phillips does not believe surgery, hormone manipulation and wearing different clothing changes the chromosomes of an individual, and science has proven him to be right.

Imagine if a cake owner was asked to produce a cake for a group that plans to have an orgy, and they want the cake to represent what is going to happen at the event. Just because the cake shop is open, does that mean he has to produce their cake?

Of course not. And someone wanting to celebrate their surgical procedure to create the illusion that they are a different gender is also not protected.

Does this mean gays will be widely abused and discriminated for their life choices? Absolutely not. 

Gays can make their own choices on their lifestyle. They can work wherever they want, they can buy a home wherever they want, and they have every right to experience life the way they choose.

But as a parent, do I have the right not to use a gay babysitter if I don’t believe my faith supports that choice? Should I know if my babysitter is transgender?

Where do the rights of one person begin when they interact with others?

Religious rights should not be ceded when we interact with the public.

And we need to realize that there are two difficulties here, not just one. Having a member of the media call a person of faith discriminatory is inflammatory and offensive.

This is a delicate situation for all involved, one that was created by the false notion of gender manipulation.

People have a right to change their appearance. It is a free country. And people of the same sex have a legal right to have a state-recognized marriage. No problem there.

But trying to involve people of faith who disagree in the holy recognition of same sex marriage or in the celebration of surgical and hormonal manipulation to create the facade of being of the opposite gender, gays must also recognize the rights of those people as well.

What we have here is an area where there is a disagreement that has nothing to do with discriminating against a woman because she is a woman or against a black man because he is a black person. 

That is wrong all day.

This is forcing someone to recognize behavior, not a person.

No one is forced to accept any and all behavior of others.

While we have to protect gays from true discrimination that would seek to prevent them form living their chosen lifestyle, they have the same responsibility to protect a person of faith from not being able to live theirs.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Reita Isaacs, Liberal

 

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