Thread by @JuliusGoat

Nazis murdered Jews. And gay people. And millions of others.

Gay people want to get married and then exist on the same planet as Christians.

So there's your difference.

What this argument is basically saying is that a Christian's "right" to not contaminate themselves with public acknowledgement of a gay person's existence is equivalent to the right of Jews and gays and PoC and Roma etc. to not be mass-murdered by the state.

It's not.

Christian conservatives insist on a world where a Muslim wishing "Happy Holidays" aggressively hears "Merry Christmas" in return, and Muslim kids hear prayers to White Jesus over the intercom in public schools, but a baker can pre-vet his cakes through an Adam and Steve filter.

They don't want a safe space for the Christian baker. They want an exclusive space for Christians everywhere, for whatever qualities they use to define "Christian."

What Christian conservatives don't realize is that insisting upon such a world will inevitably create bakers who refuse to serve Christians.

Then again, since they're coupling their stance on a fascism that enforces white Christian shibboleths on fear of reprisal, maybe they do.

Truth? We're far more likely to hear a conservative defense of Nazis asking Jewish bakers for a Nazi cake than we are to hear a defense of a gay couple asking a Christian for a wedding cake.

It'd be all, "while I deplore their beliefs, it's counterproductive to ..." etc

I keep coming back to this tweet. It’s such a common conservative talking point, and so endlessly revealing.

The logical counterpoint would be a gay baker refusing a Christian message, not a Jewish baker is refusing a Nazi message.

But they don’t. I perceive two main reasons.

The first is pretty obvious. If they use a true equivalency, they’re admitting that they want to treat gay people the way they would never want to be treated themselves.

A true equivalency would make it blatantly obvious that what they want is to discriminate.

So they have to choose some group that goes beyond offensiveness into murderous threat. They have to compare gays to Nazis.

They want to exclude gays from existing in public space while positioning gays as a threat to their existence.

The argument is telling on itself.

The conservative Christian “baker” argument is they shouldn’t have to sully themselves through interacting with the offensive existence of gay people on the planet.

The Nazi argument about gays was that they shouldn’t exist on earth.

The path between is shorter than you’d want.

So what I’m saying is, not this.

What I’m saying is that the conservative Christian argument, including this one, presents a nested series of false equivalencies that reveal a worldview of deep contempt.

You know what’s interesting to me is, we don’t have atheist bakers or Muslim bakers or Jewish bakers going to court to avoid making cakes with Christian messages or imagery.

It’s probably not because people aren’t asking for such cakes.

That’s probably because bakers realize that a commissioned cake is not their message, but their customer’s message.

If I’m a baker and you asked me to bake a cake that says “ happy birthday aunt Muriel,” I don’t suddenly have an aunt Muriel, nor am I celebrating her birthday.

it’s probably also because if they decided to open a bakery they decided to serve the public, and they have no desire to discriminate against Christians.

Because they aren’t bigoted assholes.

Now, if they’re asked to create something that is vile or inhuman or hateful or threatening, like a Nazi cake, that’s different.

Discrimination against things that are vile or inhuman or hateful or threatening should be allowed.

But if you think that’s the same matter as being asked to make a gay wedding cake— which is exactly the argument being made—then you’re saying the existence of gays is vile inhuman and hateful and threatening.

And you’re a bigoted asshole.