JVL: Gay marriage goes beyond "Bake Me a Cake"

For a better read, view this email in your browser. May 27, 2015 No. 173 By Jonathan V. Last COLD OPEN Over the last few years the gay marriage movement has transformed from "equality for all" to "bake me a cake." As it picks up steam, the movement looks more and more totalitarian, both at home and abroad. Witness the latest news from the Great White North: When Nicole White and Pam Renouf went looking for engagement rings a few months ago, the pair couldn't find anything they liked. The couple was eventually referred to Today's Jewelers in the Mount Pearl area because the store offers custom-made rings. White and Renouf visited the store and later gave specifications and a price range for potential rings. "They were great to work with. They seemed to have no issues. They knew the two of us were a same-sex couple," White said. "I referred some of my friends to them, just because I did get some good customer service and they had good prices." That was before one friend went in to purchase a ring for his girlfriend_and instead found a distressing sign. It reads: "The sanctity of marriage is under attack. Let's keep marriage between a man and a woman." Oh no. I bet you can see where this is going: The friend took a picture of the poster, which made its way back to White. "I had no idea about the sign up until that point," she said. "It was really upsetting. Really sad, because we already had money down on [the rings], and they're displaying how much they are against gays, and how they think marriage should be between a man and a woman." The couple went to the store the following day, and asked about the sign. "They just said that that's their beliefs, and they think they can put up whatever they want. I just said it was very disrespectful, it's very unprofessional and I wanted a refund," White said. "I have no issues with them believing in what they believe in. I think everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But I don't think they should put their personal beliefs inside their business." White and Renouf hope to get a refund when the man who sold them the rings returns to town next month_but it's not guaranteed. White said the rings were meant to be a symbol of love, but now the bands seem tainted. "I think every time I look at that ring, I'll probably think of what we just went through," White said. "How much they're against gays." "Disrespectful" and "unprofessional." "What we went through." What they went through? It's a testament to how bountiful and decadent Western civilization has become that people with such tender, delicate sensibilities are able to somehow make their way in the world. But what's interesting here isn't the majestic scale of hurt feelings in Canada. It's that we have a same-sex couple who asks for the services of a wedding vendor who has a different understanding as to what constitutes marriage. This vendor provides their services-and by all accounts provides them in a gracious manner. And that still isn't enough. Even possession of deviant thoughts is verboten. Actually, that's not quite fair. As Mrs. White says, it's fine for the Christian jewelers to think whatever they like. So long as they do so in private and don't say it out loud. In a funny way, maybe this case points to a temporary solution for the few remaining holdouts (of which there are 150 million or so) against the attempt to judicially redefine thousands of years of thought and law concerning marriage: During the bad old days-i.e. in 2008-it was common for many progressive businesses to display little rainbow flags in their shop windows so as to quietly advertize their support for the same-sex marriage movement. Perhaps businesses like Today's Jewelers and Sweet Cakes by Melissa and Memories Pizza ought to put little placards in their windows to let everyone know where they stand, too. Perhaps this might spare the hurt feelings of delicate flowers like Nicole White and Pam Renouf and reduce the number of incidences where business owners are asked/required to violate their consciences. Maybe a sign saying something like, "All proceeds from transactions related to same-sex wedding ceremonies will be donated to either the DeVos Center for Religion and Society or the Institute on Religion and Public Life." The idea of having to live such an aggressively politicized life is unappealing, to be sure. But the counter culture has to start somewhere. And unilateral disarmament never got anyone anywhere. LOOKING BACK "The subjection of women in Muslim societies--especially in Arab nations and in Iran--is today very much in the public eye. Accounts of lashings, stonings, and honor killings are regularly in the news, and searing memoirs by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi have become major best-sellers. One might expect that by now American feminist groups would be organizing protests against such glaring injustices, joining forces with the valiant Muslim women who are working to change their societies. This is not happening." _Christina Hoff Sommers, "The Subjection of Islamic Women," from our April May 21, 2007, issue. Remember you get full access to THE WEEKLY STANDARD archive when you subscribe.   Big (Faked) Data A phony study bites the dust.   Hindsight? Feh. The dumbest question in political journalism.   THE READING LIST Inside a funeral for a Bandido. ** Cosmology runs headlong into theology and philosophy. And stalls. (Friendly reminder: All science is settled. Until it's not.) ** Matthew Crawford on virtual reality in the New Atlantis. INSTANT CLASSIC "Sally Kohn, exhibiting the fine discernment for which she is justly famous, demanded to know why a gang of bikers was referred to as a . . . biker gang. "'Oh, look,' came the predictably snarky chorus, 'white-on-white crime!' Some of the outlaw motorcycle gangs are all-white (de facto or de jure) but the Bandidos, one of the main gangs involved in the Waco gunfight, is not one of them, unless we insist on the white Hispanic' terminology invented for George Zimmerman. Mark Thompson, during a particularly dopey episode of his Make It Plain program on Sirius XM, demanded: 'You ever heard of a black motorcycle gang?' Well, yes: One of the first outlaw gangs was the East Bay Dragons, who were tight with the Black Panthers back in the 1960s. (See Soul on Bikes for an exhaustive account of the black gangs roughly contemporary with the Hells Angels et al.) Thompson was on both sides of the issue, wondering why the law-enforcement response in Waco wasn't stronger than it was-why no National Guard?-and then answered his own question with a conspiracy theory: White gangs (or white Hispanic gangs) serve no nefarious purpose, while black gangs are tolerated because they serve the 'same purpose as the police: killing innocent black people.' That is, the fellow with a national broadcast on Sirius XM insists, part of the 'genocide program' directed at black Americans. That is what passes for analysis on the left." _Kevin Williamson on the Twin Peaks biker shootout, May 19, 2015 THE LAST WORD You didn't think that was the end of the story in Canada, did you? The jeweler in question, Esau Jardon, was somewhat reluctant to refund the lesbian couple's money. Undoing the transaction would leave him not-quite-whole. That's what deposits are for. They protect the vendor from capriciousness on the part of the buyer. But then the social justice warriors sprung into action, threatening and bullying Jardon. He quickly caved and gave the lesbian couple their money back, hoping that eating the loss would give him the opportunity to save his business in the long run. All of which is to say, with each passing week, the mask slips a bit further on the gay marriage project. If gay marriage was ever about "equality," those days have long since passed. As Charles Cooke notes, today it's about power, pure and simple. But I always like to leave you with something good, so here's the latest episode of Conversations with Bill Kristol. It features our colleague Fred Barnes and I can't recommend it highly enough, because watching it is like getting a little window into my life. I've been at the Weekly Standard since January of 1997 and getting to work for Bill and Fred has been one of the great pleasures of my life. I can't really convey to you how fantastic it is to work for them-you wouldn't believe me. But this interview might give you a small sense of the awesome. They're the best. Best, JVL P.S. To unsubscribe, click here. I won't take it personally. MORE FROM THE WEEKLY STANDARD Oberlin's Choir Supports Christina Hoff Sommers Cheeky! Read more...   Snowden's Victory And America's loss. Read more...   Bolton Bows Out The man himself on the lessons he learned. Read more...     Online Store Squeeze the head to the left to relieve stress. Yes you can! Only at our store.     Subscribe Today Get the magazine that The Economist has called "a wry observer of the American scene."   Read probing editorials and unconventional analysis from political writers with a dose of political humor at weeklystandard.com. To unsubscribe, click here.