Discrimination Okay for the Designer, But Not the Baker?
WASHINGTON -- One of the fashion designers who helped first lady Michelle Obama with clothes for years is now refusing to do the same for Melania Trump.
Sophie Theallet said she's so opposed to Donald Trump that she in good conscience couldn't work with Melania.
So far, thousands have tweeted their support of Theallet, and it's unlikely that anyone's going to try to force the designer to work with the incoming first lady.
The situation has led religious liberties defenders, like Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation, to wonder why florists, cake makers and wedding photographers who oppose providing their products to gay weddings don't get the same hands-off treatment.
"The double standard here is really amazing," Anderson, author of Truth Overruled, told CBN News.
"So liberals who have conscientious concerns and artistic talents don't have to lend their artistic gifts and talents to celebrate messages that conflict with their beliefs. But conservatives? They're called bigots and discriminators and they're going to be forced under massive government fines to use their artistic services to celebrate things that they don't believe in," he said.
LGBT supporters, however, accuse vendors who won't service a gay wedding of practicing discrimination -- just like lunch-counters refusing to serve African-Americans in the days of Jim Crow.
But according to Anderson, today's vendors aren't discriminating against people – they're objecting to taking part in an act they sincerely believe is unbiblical.
"In every case that we know of, every case that's made headlines, these were professionals who had no problem serving gay and lesbian customers," Anderson explained. "They're only conscientious concern was that they couldn't do a same-sex wedding. They couldn't be the wedding photographer; they couldn't bake the wedding cake; they couldn't do the wedding flowers."
Since thousands are applauding a fashion designer's refusal to work with Melania Trump, religious liberty supporters like Anderson suggest it's time, in the same spirit, to give a break to those vendors with biblical objections to same-sex marriage and stop prosecuting and persecuting them.
