Photographer Fined $7K for Refusing Lesbian Wedding?
don't think it's appropriate for you to participate in the wedding as a paid
professional? Well tough luck for you. Freedom of association is limited.
Freedom to turn down an offer to accept a job is way too 90's — 1890s.
That’s what three New Mexico judges said.
You see, the photographers are Christians. Freedom of association does not extend to them.
Here is the problem. Discrimination is an inescapable concept in New Mexico. If a photographer discriminates against lesbians by refusing to photograph the event they call a wedding, because a photographer is a wedding photographer, and he does not beieve this is a wedding, then he gets fined.
On the other hand, if he is forced to shoot the wedding, then he gets discriminated against. His right of association is violated.
Here is the dilemma: laws against discrimination discriminate. This is not a sophist’s argument. It cost the photographers $7,000.
There is no neutrality in civil law. Someone has his toes stepped on. Someone is told, “You may not do that.”
The New Mexico Human Rights Commission imposed the penalty,, and the judges backed up the Commission.
Read More: http://teapartyeconomist.com/2012/06/06/photograph...
Stores in many locations throughout the country reserve the right (and in many cases, are MADE) to refuse service to anyone with no shirt and no shoes... regardless of the reasons (usually health regarding shoes, but why regarding shirts? Offensive?), are the "no shirt, no shoes, no service" signs discriminatory? What about "no pets"?
I am a photographer... I would be happy to shoot a wedding for a gay/lesbian couple, personally... but, the photographer in question should have the right to turn down any job he so chooses...
This needs a Supreme Court Ruling~~
IS NOT VALID ANYMORE?