I think both the bakers and the customers made foolish choices and the escalation of this to a court case was not something that did any good for either viewpoint. It irks me to the bone every time "discrimination" is trotted out as the foul deed done someone. I remember when "having discriminating taste" was an asset, and meant merely that one could make good and educated choices when informed of facts.

What KIND of discrimination happens can be for a range of reasons from sensible to bigoted, with a very large grey area between points on that continuum. I see those who use Christianity as their reason to oppose gay marriage (or homosexuality as a whole)as being very wrong. I'm going to avoid them, boycott their businesses - my own discrimination. I can't change or legislate a shift in the thinking of "true believers" but think that encouraging the ideas I believe in (like marriage equality for gays) helps swell the tide of public opinion, so they're going to be swimming against that tide. Yet, I support their right to hold to their opinion, and to live their lives and earn their living in a way that they find ethical.

As a straight person who commissioned a very pricy wedding anniversary cake for a gay couple I love, from a straight, Catholic, brilliant cake artist, I had the sense to offer options in the commission that resulted in no one being offended, and everyone delighted with the portfolio-worthy result. While I employed someone who was definitely a cake artist, and the bakery in this contentious case may not have risen to that level, I believe an artist, or artisan, should have the right to decline a commission. I don't see that "offering my services to the public" means that the public gets to dictate that I MUST do something that violates my own ethics. Heck *I* would have declined this as I don't find reproducing licensed characters ethical (as punkfolkrocker pointed out about the Sesame Street Characters).

There are better ways of fighting bigotry than being litigious over minor issues. In the US, we'd say "don't make a Federal case out of it." The lesson should be for the folks to have better taste in who they hire.

Joanne in Cleveland - straight, not narrow