OnTheIce OnTheIce:
Sure she can. As a business owner, you have the right to do business with whoever you want. She would have been best to keep her comments to herself.
No you don't. You can't hang up a sign that says "no blacks allowed" can you?
OnTheIce OnTheIce:
If a mentally challenged person comes into a McDonalds and starts making rude comments, are they forced to serve him/her? No, they walk them out the door. Is that discrimination because he/she has mental problems?
The difference is that these were not disruptive customers. They were law abiding paying customers discriminated against for no other reason then they were gay and getting married.
OnTheIce OnTheIce:
The City can and does discriminate against business owners. That's nothing new.
Really? How? How are business owners discriminated against in the same vein that gays were being discriminated against? Making them pay taxes isn't discrimination. The biggest thing I hear around here, at least from downtown stores, is that they are discriminated against because the city won't (actually can't) provide mall capacity parking. Hardly discrimination.
This isn't a case where the customers were being overly pushy or demanding or even rude. This wasn't a case where they were being a disruptive force or an impediment to other customers business. They were by all accounts perfectly OK clients who suddenly had their order canceled for no other reason then they are gay. I have no problem with the government stepping in and fining the store owners or otherwise sanctioning them.