Originally posted by CarlJF But a "business" isn't a person and thus doesn't have any religious rights. Here, the couple weren't dealing with a person, they were dealing with a business. If the belief of an employee isn't compatible with its business, he's free to work elsewhere, in a business more in line with its religion.
This is a key component: A person can have religious beliefs. A business does not. In this particular case, it is a photography firm with multiple photographers and offices.
This is truly a fine-line topic, but one that is necessary to understand. As you go about your personal life, you are free to hold whatever beliefs (positive and negative) you wish to hold. You may even express them to the extent that you realize other people may have a reaction to your beliefs (positive and negative).
But when you open a business, you are offering a service to the
public. And the public has a right to expect that if they ask for what your business offers, whether it is pork loin sandwiches or wedding photographs, that you will not discriminate in public against a person's
identity.
If you are offering your services as a friend, as a skilled photographer, but nonetheless not in business open to the public, you may pick and chose among your friends, family, and acquaintances deciding which weddings to photography. There is complete freedom there, except perhaps a mother-in-law's wrath or other social hazards.
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A block from my house sits the ruin of a motor hotel from the 1930s. Currently it is used for storage of construction equipment, but it is sure to be demolished soon as the entire area is gentrifying me out of affordability.
At any rate, the
Green Acres Motel was a Black person's hotel. It was listed in
(actual name from history) "The Negro Motorist Green Book" as a safe place for accommodation in the Jim Crow south. The Green Book was published and sold across the USA from 1936 to 1966. The reason for it is that Black people had a need to travel, but no idea where they could find any accommodations along the way, from restaurants, to pharmacies, to taxis, to hotels, to barber shops. Entering the wrong establishment meant everything from ridicule and public shaming to physical harm or death.
This sounds like an extreme parallel to draw, except that my point is that the belief system which made The Green Book necessary was often couched in "my religious beliefs." Slavery, Jim Crow, rigid segregation, and more were previously justified by "religious beliefs." Somehow today, religious beliefs from Jim Crow days are no longer backed by social mores or government laws.
While some people may hold onto those personal/religious beliefs from 1960, those personal feelings, comfort zones, and religious beliefs are all illegal today
if practiced as a filter for business: you simply cannot have a business open to the public and discriminate against others based on their race.
To me, this is the same principle: A photography business is open to the public. If they offer wedding photography, they should offer the same service to anyone who comes in the door and not discriminate based on
identity.
The example given by Wired is a good one to draw fine lines in the discussion: Say he runs a wedding photography business and someone wants a photo shoot of a four-day wedding, with activities lasting from morning to dark at various locations. The answer for someone in that business, yet inexperienced in that particular type of wedding is something along the lines of:
"Our standard package consists of 4 hours of afternoon/evening shooting, consisting of the bride and groom, the wedding ceremony and the reception/dinner, if any. We deliver a wedding book and 100-200 edited shots for you to choose from. We don't have the manpower or knowledge necessary to shoot a four-day wedding."
It is not a denial based on the religion or race of the customer, but based on the services you offer to anyone. You'd be more than happy to shoot for four hours worth of familiar ceremonies. You have no idea what sort of images would be expected from a days-long ceremony nor the people necessary to make it happen.
That's the (rough) equivalent of selling hamburgers to everyone who walks in the door: "Step up to the counter and order your burger. I'm sorry, but we cannot accommodate an order for four days worth of burgers served from dawn to dusk to the exclusion of everyone else." (well, an imperfect analogy, but ...)
Last edited by yucatanPentax; 02-06-2017 at 02:22 PM.