Freedom of Association

Remember the story about the Christian bakery that wouldn't make a wedding cake for a gay couple? Remember they lost in court?

One thing that is lost in this story is what if the "cake" was on the other foot? What if it was a gay baker being asked to produce an anti-gay cake? Libertarian presidential candidate Austin Petersen gave the best example: What if it was a Jewish baker being asked to make a pro-Nazi cake? I would add, what if it was a black baker being asked to produce a pro-KKK cake?

At some point, don't we need to allow businesses the right to say no, even if it goes against whatever is politically correct at the time? If we start to make distinctions on this point, where does it end?

This is clearly an issue which involves freedom of association. We have a human right to join any groups we wish. Unfortunately, that right also includes the right to join groups that don't want us. Catch-22.

One of the few things Mitt Romney got right was when he said, "Corporations are people, my friend." A corporation is a collective of people. We can argue the nature of this collective, but it is still made up of people. Shouldn't collectives of people have the same rights as individuals?

Here is the problem: In a corporation, are the same values shared by all the individuals in the corporation? Probably not. So whose values are the values of the corporation? Inevitably, it becomes the values of the CEO or the board of directors. In the case of the Christian bakery, it is going to be the values of the owner(s). So if there is a worker at the bakery who favors gay marriage, his views don't get represented in the decision of the business to not bake a gay couple's cake.

Ergo, corporations and businesses do not deserve the rights of an individual, because they do not collectively represent the views of the individuals working for them. People don't work for businesses because they agree with the CEO's view of marriage. They work there to make money.

On the other hand...

If a church were to deny a gay couple the right to marry there, I would support that right. Churches are, almost by definition, representative of the views of their collective. Churches should be allowed the same freedom of association rights that individuals enjoy.