Alex Allen | The New Cultural Narrative
People on
all ends of the ideological spectrum are up in arms over a piece of legislation
in Arizona that, if signed into law, would allow business owners to openly
discriminate against and deny service to homosexuals for religious reasons. And
of course, we’re seeing the usual political theatre. The right wing Republicans
are being portrayed as the intolerant, bigoted, Bible belt Christian
Conservatives while the left wing Democrats are being portrayed as the pro-gay,
human rights supporting hippies. There's nothing new to see here, right?
Despite
the typical mainstream left-right narrative, there is something a
little different about this particular piece of legislation. This new proposal
touches on a very thin and very sensitive line between human rights and property
rights, which is why I believe both sides are blowing things way out of
proportion. (Oh, what’s that? The Republicans and Democrats are lacking in
logic and reason and are sensationalizing things? What a shocker!)
First of
all, I want to go on the record as saying that I am completely supportive of
gay rights. Because of my Libertarian belief that the government should have
absolutely nothing to do with marriage, I have no problem with gays getting
married or having civil unions or doing whatever they want. Even on a personal
note I don’t have any problems with gay people. I’m a pretty tolerant person
and to me, homosexuality is just another meaningless characteristic like the
color of someone’s skin or hair. Unfortunately, however, some people don’t see
it that way. Some people don’t like gay people because they don’t like what
they stand for; they see homosexuality as an abomination, a sin, and an open
mockery of core traditional values.
While I
wholeheartedly disagree with people who are so vehemently against homosexuality
and while I believe they should be more open-minded and tolerant of their
fellow human beings, I also understand that they have the right to believe what
they believe. What they also have a right to is their property. And regardless
of whether or not people would like to think of businesses as public areas,
they do fall under the category of private property. That being said, if someone
were to come to my home and I didn’t want them there, I would have the right to
kick them off of my property. And if they didn’t comply, I could call the
police and have them removed for trespassing. There’s no law that says I have
to let people in my home to prevent discrimination against people of certain
sexual orientations or even races and genders. So why should it be any
different with businesses?
If I owned
a restaurant, that would be my restaurant. It wouldn’t be public property. Of
course, I would want and encourage people to come on to my property so that
they could exchange money for the food I would be serving. Still, no one but
myself would have an actual “right” to be there just like no one but myself
would have the “right” to be at my home. So I technically have the right to
serve or not serve anyone I want. In fact, if I wanted to put a sign on the
front door of my restaurant that read “no gays or Jews” I would be within my
rights to do so. Now, obviously I wouldn’t do that for a multitude of reasons.
For one, I’m not a bigoted jerk and again, I don’t care about petty things like
skin color, religion, or sexual orientation. Even if I were a bit bigoted,
however, I still wouldn’t put up a sign like that because it would be bad for
business. I would at least have enough sense as a business person to hide my
own intolerance and bigotry in order to attract more customers.
So since I
agree with the idea of business owners being able to choose who they serve, one
would I think I would automatically be in favor of this new Arizona bill. But
I’m not. Why? Well, for one, I don’t think we need any more laws telling us
that we have the right to do something we already have the right to do. We
already have a right to our own property. To make this an official law would be
the same as passing a law that says we have the right to wear green shirts. Well,
of course we have the right to wear green shirts! That goes without saying. But
the primary reason why I am against this bill being made into law is the fact
that it sends the wrong message. To pass such a law would suggest that we, as a
society, are okay with discrimination and bigotry. And while I support a
person’s right to be bigot in legal terms, I don’t think we need to be
promoting it. In fact, I would strongly oppose any business that openly
discriminated against someone because of their sexual orientation, religion,
skin color, ethnicity, or any other similar characteristic because it simply
isn’t right.
So to sum
up my views on the issue, I’m definitely against discrimination but I don’t
think it’s an issue that needs to be legislated when it comes to private
businesses and private property. Because, whether you like it or not, the
people who don’t support your rights have rights too.
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