Should gov’t be able to force bakers’ hands?

The article “Opponents in LGBT case agree: It’s not about wedding cake,” News, Dec. 3, couches the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission Supreme Court case as an artist’s freedom of expression versus the survival of LGBT people. The case arose through a baker’s refusal to create a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. The baker does not discriminate against customers based on race, creed, color, or sexual orientation. He has declined to make a cake honoring a ceremony to which he’s religiously opposed.

The question: Can the state conscript a baker (or others) to create a product that goes against the person’s core — in this case, religious — beliefs? Could a black baker be compelled by a white customer to prepare a cake decorated with KKK-figures carrying Confederate flags? Could a male, knit-hat maker be compelled to make pink “vagina hats” for a women’s march? We’ll see. GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA

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