There is nothing "right" about forcing anyone to do business with anyone they don't want to do business with.jafs wrote: Gay/lesbian/bisexual, etc. folks should have the same legal rights as straight people, in my view.
There's no compelling argument to deny that, and we're a country based on the notion that "all are created equal".
I think that the gay/lesbian/etc. population is something like 4%, so I'm not afraid at all if that might expand a little bit, and see no threat to our continuing to populate (over-populate) the planet.
The state has a legitimate interest in protecting children, and ensuring that they are safe/well cared for, but that interest doesn't break down along sexual orientation lines for me at all - there are many abusive straight parents, for example.
If I remember the Oregon bakery issue, the bakery violated an Oregon anti-discrimination law and were rightly found to be in the wrong. They managed to quickly raise a lot of money, more than enough to pay the fine, and are still in business - I don't see how their lives have been ruined.
Currently, different cities/states have different laws about sexual orientation, and people can participate in the political process, and/or locate in a place that they find preferable, until the federal government steps up on the issue.
People are free to hold whatever religious beliefs they hold about homosexuality.
They were legally forced, not "rightly" forced.
Note: I don't have anything against gay people. They should have exactly the same rights as everyone else. However, those rights do not include the right to force anyone to do business with anyone else.
On a related note, I have stopped contributing to the ACLU. This is a paraphrase of what I tell them whenever they solicit me for money:
"You should divide up into two organizations. The first one, which should be called the ACLU, will defend rights found in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The second one, which should be called the TMURU (Totally Made Up Rights Union), will defend all the other made up "rights" like the "right to force people to bake cakes for people they don't want to bake cakes for". I'll donate to the first of these organizations, but not the second."