Designer refuses to dress Melania Trump

[Anakin McFly]

citing her staunch disagreement with Trump's racism/sexism/xenophobia and not wanting to have anything to do with it.

https://mobile.twitter.com/sophietheall ... 00/photo/1

Question is - should she be allowed to? Someone who posted that on FB pointed out that if bakeries weren't allowed to discriminate against gay couples because of their belief that homosexuality is wrong, she shouldn't be allowed to do the same. Both are privately owned businesses. They say it's a double standard, and I can't really see how they're wrong.

Edit: Perhaps it's the difference between refusing to serve someone because of who they are vs because of what they've done. But that gives the question of "is being gay a choice?" too much weight for my liking.

[Gendo]

The difference is purely in "homosexuality is a protected class in some states". So no bakery was every in trouble for "refusing to serve anyone and everyone no matter what". They were in trouble for refusing service to a protected class.

[phe_de]

What the story does not say: Does the First Lady usually ask designers for clothes, or do the designers make offers to the First Lady?

If it's the former, then it's comparable to the gay wedding cake case.
But if it's the latter, and Theallet simply refused to make an offer to Melania Trump, I don't see a problem.

[CashRules]

Um, it's "Melania" and seeing as how she will soon be the only First lady to ever pose nude what's the big deal about her getting dressed?

[aels]

What Gendo said. She's not discriminating against Melania on the grounds of race or sexuality or gender identity or religion or owt like that. I see it like barring someone from a pub because last time they were in with their husband, a lot of Muslims got yelled at and someone took a dump on the carpet (the carpet is America. SATIRE).

[CashRules]

Muslims don't go to pubs!!!

[aels]

CHECKMATE ATHEISTS: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/going-to ... s-a-muslim

[CashRules]

Mind blown!

[Anakin McFly]

Argh I swear I typed Melania. Damn you autocorrect.

Thanks for the answers! The protected class thing makes sense as a legal line. Though now that person is arguing WHAT IF A PEDO WANTS A WEDDING CAKE FOR A CHILD MARRIAGE, and it feels like a cop out to go "pedophiles aren't a protected class". He also asks if it would then be discrimination if he were to go to a gay baker and request a wedding cake that had the message "marriage is between a man and a woman", and the baker refused to write that. He thinks that in such a case the gay baker would be justified in rejecting him because it would mean doing something against his beliefs.

I don't like this issue because a lot of it depends on one's individual moral beliefs, which can sometimes be extreme.

[phe_de]

One commenter said it's about the designer giving away freebies. If that's the case, Thealley did nothing wrong, and there is no case of discrimination.

If one day a gay person became president and publicly announced to get married to their long-term partner, then no bakery would be required to make a cake for free. Including bakeries run by bigots.