Common Sense For New Hampshire

So now even Mitt Romney has urged Arizona governor Jan Brewer to veto that bill that would allow business owners in the state to decline to participate in gay weddings if doing so would violate their religious beliefs.  I thought I was told that Mitt was a really religious guy.  I guess being loved by the political/media/entertainment establishment is more important to him than following any sort of principle.

And there is a very important principle at stake here.  Important to me anyway.  And it should be important to you.

Like I’ve said so many times…honest, peaceful human beings have a right to live their lives free from coercion and the threat or use of force.  And the people of Arizona shouldn’t need a law such as their legislature is attempting to pass, or even the U.S. Constitution, to acknowledge that right.  That right is an intrinsic part of their humanity.  They already have it.  If someone doesn’t want to do something, for any reason but particularly if it violates his or her religion, they have a right not to do it.

Suppose you’re Lillian Lottie.  Now I don’t even know if there is a Lillian Lottie.  But there is a couture bridal shop in Scottsdale called Lillian Lottie Couture.  Maybe there is a Lillian Lottie and she’s gay.  I don’t know.

But just for argument’s sake let’s say that there is a Lillian Lottie and she’s a deeply religious woman.  And ever since she was a young girl she wanted to make wedding dresses.  She labored for years at the fashion institute and then spent decades building up her bridal couture shop.  The whole while she never even imagined that she would one day be required to participate in planning a gay wedding, an action she believes for her, would be a sin.

Remember, gays have no problem buying hamburgers at McDonalds or gas at the Hess station.  Maybe even Lillian Lottie worked her way through school by working at McDonalds and happily served hamburgers to plenty of gay people.  Nobody cares.  This isn’t, as the media wants you to believe, about serving gay people.  This is about people being forced to be active participants in gay weddings.

So should Ms. Lottie be forced to create dresses for a lesbian wedding?  Or maybe two transvestites want to be married.  Ms. Lottie doesn’t care if they want to be married.  She just doesn’t want to make dresses for men.  Should she be forced to?

And it doesn’t have to be about gay weddings or even about religion.  Suppose I was looking for a piano instructor for one of my daughters and I heard there was a woman in town, let’s call her Ms. Melody, who was the best piano teacher in the area.  Let’s say when I contact her she tells me she’s a feminist and she’s heard of me and my blog and that she finds my views abhorrent and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.  Am I going to force Ms. Melody to come to my house and force her to sell me piano lessons?  Of course not.  Does she have a right to choose not to associate with me?  Of course she does.

My message to gays:  You’re winning.  Put the shotgun away.  It’s only hurting your cause.