- Dec 18, 2011
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Clothing designers feel they can discriminate against women who don't hold views that match their own. It's the same with entertainers. They are allowed to reject service to anyone and they aren't threatened with fines or having their business shut down.
How is designing clothing and designing cakes really that different? How is a photographer actively working at a wedding any different than a singer performing at a wedding or inauguration?
They aren't really any different.
People have talents that are unique to them. The only question is whether you can reject customers based on your personal views? If you are a liberal, the answer is yes and you can expect praise when the people you reject are Republicans. If you are a Christian, you have ceded any rights regarding your personal views and you will go along with the left's beliefs or pay the price.
"If fashion designers can refuse service to the Trumps based on principle, why can’t bakers and florists follow their own principles?
You see, “clothes are commodities, certainly, but they also have an artful point of view that is distinctly personal.” That’s why, Givhan says, refusing to dress the Trumps “is not the equivalent of refusing service.” And so, Givhan concludes, “for those designers for whom fashion serves as their voice in the world, they should not feel obligated to say something in which they do not believe.”
I agree with Givhan. Don’t make anyone “dress” political figures they don’t like. Don’t make any artists use their talents to advance viewpoints they find offensive. There are designers who are happy to work with Trumps. Others aren’t. Big deal. Life goes on. But if there is a single person who thinks that Sophie Theallet, Marc Jacobs, Derek Lam, and others have a right to refuse to dress the Trumps, but also believes that Christian bakers, photographers, and florists have to use their talents to celebrate gay weddings — there’s a word for you: Hypocrite.
Indeed, you’re likely worse than a garden-variety hypocrite. You’re almost certainly malicious and elitist to boot. Consider the parallels. Photographers, bakers, and florists are using their individual artistic talents not just to document but to celebrate an event. Many of them enter their profession to express their own views about “beauty” and do their work to glorify God. Their art is their best tool for “communicating their world vision.”
But all too many on the Left just don’t care. All that matters is that they refused to use their artistic talents for a gay couple. And aren’t LGBT people protected from discrimination? But wait, aren’t Melania and Ivanka also women? And aren’t women a protected class under nondiscrimination law also?
You begin to see the silliness of the argument. Yes, Melania and Ivanka are women, but that’s incidental and irrelevant compared with their political identity. The designers aren’t refusing to dress the Trumps because of their gender but because of their presumed worldview. Similarly, when a baker or florist works with gay men and women all the time and just draws the line when they’re asked to help celebrate a same-sex wedding, they’re objecting to a particular idea, not refusing service based on status. If a black baker refuses to bake a Confederate-flag cake, is he refusing because of the race of the customer or the symbolism of the flag?
Here’s where the malice and elitism come into play. We’ve come to expect that famous progressives will run their businesses to advance their politics. We’ve come to expect that progressive artists will take every opportunity to preach their gospels. These same progressives have come to expect the thunderous applause of elite media and their peers when they do.
But where’s the same regard for the rights of others? Where’s the same concern for the small-town florist or baker? No, those people need to be crushed — to be fined and driven out of business until they conform to the cultural elite. They need to be ruined and reeducated. “Free speech for me but not for thee” is forever the cry of the powerful, and now it’s supplemented with a form a sneering condescension against those who disagree – especially if they disagree on religious grounds."
Read more at: Dissent Is Fashionable Again
How is designing clothing and designing cakes really that different? How is a photographer actively working at a wedding any different than a singer performing at a wedding or inauguration?
They aren't really any different.
People have talents that are unique to them. The only question is whether you can reject customers based on your personal views? If you are a liberal, the answer is yes and you can expect praise when the people you reject are Republicans. If you are a Christian, you have ceded any rights regarding your personal views and you will go along with the left's beliefs or pay the price.
"If fashion designers can refuse service to the Trumps based on principle, why can’t bakers and florists follow their own principles?
You see, “clothes are commodities, certainly, but they also have an artful point of view that is distinctly personal.” That’s why, Givhan says, refusing to dress the Trumps “is not the equivalent of refusing service.” And so, Givhan concludes, “for those designers for whom fashion serves as their voice in the world, they should not feel obligated to say something in which they do not believe.”
I agree with Givhan. Don’t make anyone “dress” political figures they don’t like. Don’t make any artists use their talents to advance viewpoints they find offensive. There are designers who are happy to work with Trumps. Others aren’t. Big deal. Life goes on. But if there is a single person who thinks that Sophie Theallet, Marc Jacobs, Derek Lam, and others have a right to refuse to dress the Trumps, but also believes that Christian bakers, photographers, and florists have to use their talents to celebrate gay weddings — there’s a word for you: Hypocrite.
Indeed, you’re likely worse than a garden-variety hypocrite. You’re almost certainly malicious and elitist to boot. Consider the parallels. Photographers, bakers, and florists are using their individual artistic talents not just to document but to celebrate an event. Many of them enter their profession to express their own views about “beauty” and do their work to glorify God. Their art is their best tool for “communicating their world vision.”
But all too many on the Left just don’t care. All that matters is that they refused to use their artistic talents for a gay couple. And aren’t LGBT people protected from discrimination? But wait, aren’t Melania and Ivanka also women? And aren’t women a protected class under nondiscrimination law also?
You begin to see the silliness of the argument. Yes, Melania and Ivanka are women, but that’s incidental and irrelevant compared with their political identity. The designers aren’t refusing to dress the Trumps because of their gender but because of their presumed worldview. Similarly, when a baker or florist works with gay men and women all the time and just draws the line when they’re asked to help celebrate a same-sex wedding, they’re objecting to a particular idea, not refusing service based on status. If a black baker refuses to bake a Confederate-flag cake, is he refusing because of the race of the customer or the symbolism of the flag?
Here’s where the malice and elitism come into play. We’ve come to expect that famous progressives will run their businesses to advance their politics. We’ve come to expect that progressive artists will take every opportunity to preach their gospels. These same progressives have come to expect the thunderous applause of elite media and their peers when they do.
But where’s the same regard for the rights of others? Where’s the same concern for the small-town florist or baker? No, those people need to be crushed — to be fined and driven out of business until they conform to the cultural elite. They need to be ruined and reeducated. “Free speech for me but not for thee” is forever the cry of the powerful, and now it’s supplemented with a form a sneering condescension against those who disagree – especially if they disagree on religious grounds."
Read more at: Dissent Is Fashionable Again
