Okay, so Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to gays and lesbians. That I get, that makes sense. What doesn't make sense to me is the bill itself, which would have bestowed upon business owners the right to lose customers if they so chose. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a right that no Arizona business owner wanted, thank you very much.
According to yesterday's New York Times:
"The bill was inspired by incidents in other states in which florists, photographers and bakers were sued for refusing to cater to same-sex couples."
But wait...same-sex marriages aren't even legal in Arizona. Who's going to plan a same-sex marriage with all the trimmings in Arizona?
But back to my point: What company, large or small, wants to turn down business? Even places like Hobby Lobby and Chick-filet, who came out with an anti-gay message, drew the line at refusing to do business with gays. The buck stops where the buck starts.
Granted, there have been societies throughout the history of our occupation of the planet in which it's been standard operating procedure for businesses to deny service to certain groups of their fellow human beings.
But don't you think there must have been luncheonette owners in the American South in the 1950's who would have liked to have been able to fill all the seats in their restaurant, no matter what the skin color of the customers? Must there not have been German shop owners during the Depression of the 1930's who would love to have been able to remove the "No Dogs and Jews" signs from their windows? Weren't there probably hungry star-belly sneetch weiner-roast caterers who would have been glad to pick up plain-belly events, too?
The problem is that a law that says "You don't have to serve those people" can turn into "You better not serve those people." Which means you can't serve those people, even if you want to.
But to those business owners who choose to follow the demands of a religion that forbids them from providing to certain of their brothers or sisters, I offer this advice: When a member of the group of which you disapprove attempts to avail themselves of your product or service, just tell them you're sorry, but you have more business than you can handle. And rest assured, they'll take their business elsewhere.
On Monday I'll share a story from an experience Tom and I had 35 years ago that's somewhat contiguous to this same subject.
Everyone have a wonderful weekend! 8)
According to yesterday's New York Times:
"The bill was inspired by incidents in other states in which florists, photographers and bakers were sued for refusing to cater to same-sex couples."
But wait...same-sex marriages aren't even legal in Arizona. Who's going to plan a same-sex marriage with all the trimmings in Arizona?
But back to my point: What company, large or small, wants to turn down business? Even places like Hobby Lobby and Chick-filet, who came out with an anti-gay message, drew the line at refusing to do business with gays. The buck stops where the buck starts.
Granted, there have been societies throughout the history of our occupation of the planet in which it's been standard operating procedure for businesses to deny service to certain groups of their fellow human beings.
But don't you think there must have been luncheonette owners in the American South in the 1950's who would have liked to have been able to fill all the seats in their restaurant, no matter what the skin color of the customers? Must there not have been German shop owners during the Depression of the 1930's who would love to have been able to remove the "No Dogs and Jews" signs from their windows? Weren't there probably hungry star-belly sneetch weiner-roast caterers who would have been glad to pick up plain-belly events, too?
The problem is that a law that says "You don't have to serve those people" can turn into "You better not serve those people." Which means you can't serve those people, even if you want to.
But to those business owners who choose to follow the demands of a religion that forbids them from providing to certain of their brothers or sisters, I offer this advice: When a member of the group of which you disapprove attempts to avail themselves of your product or service, just tell them you're sorry, but you have more business than you can handle. And rest assured, they'll take their business elsewhere.
On Monday I'll share a story from an experience Tom and I had 35 years ago that's somewhat contiguous to this same subject.
Everyone have a wonderful weekend! 8)
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