It’s About More Than Flowers

Curt Freed and Robert Ingersoll got engaged just before The Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality, when the State of Washington was recognizing same-sex marriages.  The couple were longtime customers of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington. The couple asked owner Barronelle Stutzman about arrangements for their wedding.

Stutzman, who is an ardent evangelical, denied the couple’s request saying she could not support a wedding that her faith forbids. “I was not discriminating at all,” she told CNN in 2013. “I never told him he couldn’t get married. I gave him recommendations for other flower shops.”

The couple sued along with the state attorney general. On February 16, 2017 the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that the florist violated the state’s anti-discrimination law.

The judges sided with Ingersoll and Freed’s argument that their case was about more than access to flowers, just as civil rights cases of the 1960s were about more than access to sandwiches.  “As every other court to address the question has concluded, public accommodations laws do not simply guarantee access to goods or services. Instead, they serve a broader societal purpose: eradicating barriers to the equal treatment of all citizens in the commercial marketplace.”

With marriage equality now legal in all fifty states, this ruling joins “a growing body of case law rejecting business owners’ claims of first amendment protections as grounds for discrimination,” said Elizabeth Gill, the ACLU’s senior staff attorney and co-counsel for the couple. “It sends a really strong message that for the state of Washington inclusion and acceptance is incredibly important,” she said. “It’s an important contribution to the growing body of case law that rejects the idea that people operating in the public space can discriminate.”

“We’re thrilled that the Washington Supreme Court has ruled in our favor. The court affirmed that we are on the right side of law and the right side of history,” Freed and Ingersoll said in a statement. “We felt it was so important that we stand up against discrimination because we don’t want what happened to us to happen to anyone else. We are so glad that we stood up for our rights.”

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/us/washington-florist-same-sex-wedding-discrimination-lawsuit/

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The Most Powerful Vice President Ever

Earlier in Donald Trump’s campaign, before Mike Pence was chosen as his running mate, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, explained how Trump would run the country. He said the vice president of the Trump administration would really be the Chief Executive Officer or President of the company, seeing to the day to day operations. While Trump would act more like the Chairman of the Board, more hands off and be available when needed.

Manafort said “He [Trump] needs an experienced person to do the part of the job he doesn’t want to do. He seems himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO…  There is a long list of who that person could be.”   And now we know: that person is Mike Pence. Manafort’s quote and other commentary has suggested that Pence could be “the most powerful vice president ever.” Pence’s first duty is chairman of Trump’s transition team?  Filling all the major positions in the incoming Trump administration.

The main problem with the power shift to Pence is that he is one of the most anti-LGBTQ, evangelical Christian politicians to serve in Congress and as governor of a state. His history includes supporting conversion therapy, stating that marriage equality would lead to “societal collapse” and calling homosexuality a choice. Pence has said that stopping the LGBTQ community from marrying wasn’t biased, but was rather about compelling “God’s idea.”  After all, he was the one who, last year, signed the anti-LGBTQ Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law.

If Manafort’s predictions are correct, Trump will take a ‘hands-off’ approach on LGBTQ issues and allow Pence to get his way.  In fact, the assault on LGBTQ rights is already underway. That’s why we must pull ourselves out of grief, get fired up, and begin the fight right now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-assault-lgbtq-equality_us_58275a17e4b02d21bbc8ff9b

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More Than a Distraction

Did you hear about VP-Elect Mike Pence’s visit to the Broadway show Hamilton? The cast had a message for Pence and President-Elect Trump about inclusion that they shared after the performance. You can view it here.

Trump did not enjoy the message and fired back on Twitter, stating that the cast of Hamilton harassed Pence.

Evening talk show host, Seth Meyers, is arguing that Trump is using this event as a distraction for what has become a messy transition to the White House.

“President-elect Donald Trump prompted new questions this weekend about his foreign business ties to potential conflicts of interests — questions Trump responded to by picking a fight with the cast of a Broadway musical,” said Meyers on Monday’s Late Night.

Meyers pointed out that New Yorkers never would have bet Hamilton, an award winning show, could get even more publicity, but Trump was able to make it happen.

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