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11 votes
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State-funded adoption agencies in Michigan barred from refusing LGBTQ parents
7 votes -
United Methodist Church votes to maintain its opposition to same-sex marriage, gay clergy
21 votes -
United Methodist Church to debate LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings
8 votes -
Poland moves step closer to banning gay conversion therapy
14 votes -
LGBTQ Armenians face reign of terror
9 votes -
Gay couples in Japan filed Valentine's Day lawsuits demanding marriage equality
13 votes -
Women's March in Malaysia to push for LGBTI rights
10 votes -
Holocaust Memorial Day: How the pink triangle became a symbol of gay rights
8 votes -
Angola is the latest African country to decriminalise homosexuality
9 votes -
Street transvestite action revolutionaries: Survival, revolt, and queer antagonist struggles
7 votes -
Same-sex marriage advocates lose Taiwan referendums
9 votes -
One year after Yes vote, same-sex couples celebrate - and fight anew
7 votes -
Huge majority of Australians oppose laws banning gay students and teachers
7 votes -
Scott Morrison will change the law to ban religious schools from expelling gay students
10 votes -
Religious freedom review enshrines right of schools to turn away gay children and teachers
Religious freedom review enshrines right of schools to turn away gay children and teachers How religion will divide the Liberals and inflame the Parliament
3 votes -
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel backs same-sex marriage
6 votes -
House Appropriations Republicans adopt "license to discriminate" amendment
13 votes -
India decriminalises homosexuality
12 votes -
‘Gay sex is not a crime,’ says Supreme Court of India in historic judgement
Article from Times of India: ‘Gay sex is not a crime,’ says Supreme Court in historic judgement Video from Times of India: LGBT community celebrates across the nation Article from NDTV: Section...
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Article from Times of India: ‘Gay sex is not a crime,’ says Supreme Court in historic judgement
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Video from Times of India: LGBT community celebrates across the nation
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Article from NDTV: Section 377 Verdict Live Updates: "History Owes Apology To LGBT," Says Supreme Court
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Article from CNN: India's top court decriminalizes gay sex in landmark ruling
22 votes -
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California Senate passes bill to ban gay conversion therapy
23 votes -
Ordinary person, wild radical
7 votes -
Supreme Court of Canada rules that limits on religious freedom 'reasonable' to protect LGBT rights
14 votes -
Tunisian presidential committee recommends decriminalizing homosexuality
5 votes -
It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake: LGBT+ discrimination
Well, there comes a time in every community's existence where someone gets an idea for discussion from another thread he wishes were better framed. So buckle in. This discussion is intended to sit...
Well, there comes a time in every community's existence where someone gets an idea for discussion from another thread he wishes were better framed. So buckle in. This discussion is intended to sit at an uncomfortable cultural crossroads.
In the EU, gay spouses are now able to have the same freedom of movement rights as straight spouses. The Supreme Court in the United States ruled that a baker was treated unfairly by a Colorado regulatory commission when they tried to suss out if he discriminated against a gay couple who wanted to purchase a wedding cake.
In Brazil (you thought I was going to let this one be), courts have explicitly allowed conversion therapy to continue.
In Chechnya (a part of Russia that I always seem to struggle to spell), you could be hunted down and tortured or killed if you were gay, with people turning their own family members over to the local government. The local government, in absurdity, claimed after the purge that there were "no gays" in Chechnya, so there could have been no purge.
The point I'm trying to make here is that LGBT+ discrimination is an issue that should touch just about everywhere.
Before we get too deep, a point on terms. Discrimination, strictly speaking, is separating one thing from another. It is not necessarily a hostile act. If I say "you can drive only if your vision is good enough to read signs while you drive," that is discrimination on the basis of your ability to see, but most people aren't likely to say it's unreasonable discrimination (there is a rather obvious safety implication, for starters). Similarly, if you tell women to go to the bathroom in one space, and men to go to the bathroom in another space, that is discrimination based on gender. Is it reasonable discrimination? That might depend on if you're trans, and what state you're in.
This topic has to be more limited than this set up implies it will be. We won't be able to narrow things well enough to have a meaningful discussion otherwise. Today, we're just going to touch on the simple (ha!) matter of whether baking a wedding cake is art, whether refusing a wedding cake to a gay couple is discrimination, and what a government should be expected to do about it. So, the questions:
- Is making a custom wedding cake for a wedding "art"?
- Is refusing a custom wedding cake to a couple because it would be for a cause you do not support discrimination on the basis of that couple's identity?
- How should a just government resolve a dispute between a couple who feel unreasonably discriminated against and an artist who feels compelled to use speech for a cause they do not support?
And a bonus question:
- What role should a judicial branch have in advancing various groups' rights? Does relying on this less democratic method for securing rights open a movement up to counter-reaction or is the counter-reaction simply an inevitable consequence of a movement's success?
22 votes -
America's 'gay wedding cake' court decision and what it means for Australia
4 votes -
Canada to add third gender option in government surveys
6 votes