Marty Klein explains how the recent and controversial gay wedding cake ruling is NOT about "freedom of religious belief" (an utterly bogus argument), but about "freedom from forced artistic expression". The bakery does NOT have the right to refuse service to LGBT customers (and indeed, it did not - it offered to sell the couple a pre-made cake). What this ruling means is that the couple cannot coerce the cake artist to express himself artistically (in the form of designing a cake) in a way that involves the expression of a belief he does not hold (and is in fact opposed to) - regardless of whether or not religion is the source of this belief.
Is this baker's bigoted beliefs a crock of shit? Absolutely! But remember the saying, "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." Incorporated in the freedom of expression is the notion that you cannot be coerced into expressing beliefs you do not hold. Not only is it important that your voice is not silenced, but that you should be free to choose your words, and not forced to make statements you do not believe in. The same principle that defends this baker's refusal to design a gay wedding cake defends your right to refuse to draw a bloody fetus in icing, with the words "all life is precious" around the edge of the cake.
Once again, it's the public and the media that has distorted the story and turned it into another battleground for partisan warfare, obscuring the truly important matters at stake. Leave it to Marty Klein - one of the few brilliant and properly-oriented minds in this age - to straighten things out and find the silver lining in this storm cloud.
In more sobering news, however, Congress has decided to criminalize sex robots.
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