I am willing to make the following deal with most anti gay business owners

[dsc]

I am willing to give you a legal right to deny gay patrons your goods and services under one condition. You must put on your storefront and on any and all advertising in large print and or full voice the following disclaimer, I as a business owner refuse to serve gay patrons. Now some people would be not in this deal. You can't do this if you work for the government, for an employer who wants to serve gay patrons, or in certain time sensitive or skill sensitive businesses (think hospital, brain surgeon, etc)

[CincyDem]

1. Something like "coming out of the bigotry" closet.

Nice idea to allow these dolts to understand the consequences of being on the proverbial wrong side of history. Unfortunately, it'll never come to fruition because it reeks of being accountable and, well...we all know how much our friends on the right are in favor of taking accountability for anything.

[dsc]

2. Oh yea it is a pipe dream no doubt about it

[CincyDem]

6. Every great program started as someone's dream

Maybe there's a way to reframe it to the positive.

Consider mortgage lenders (and I know they have a lot to be embarrassed about) who use the "Equal Opportunity Lender" icon.

Rather than focus on the bigots having to wear the "Scarlet-B", maybe we're better off having rational folks use some kind of standard symbol. Simple, to the point, maybe just a rainbow block...just enough to know that the advertiser is one of the good guys.

[dsc]

10. intriguing idea

The HRC gives ratings of gay friendliness but I have never seen those in ads. Not sure if that is because the HRC won't let them or no businesses have wanted to run them.

[CincyDem]

12. It's not a trivial endevour

But it's probably doable. Think BBB. We're part of that and I think we pay something like 20 bucks a year, maybe 30. That covers the cost of monitoring and tracking businesses and complaints.

In today's world of Angie's List...maybe someone with a lot more computer smarts than me needs to start "Matthew's List", "Chelsea's List" or something like that. A clearing house to crowdsource ratings on businesses' openness to what today's world looks like.

[RKP5637]

3. Wasn't there something like that in the original bill, and then they removed it during review. I

would like to see them well identified too, out them, get the bigotry right out into the open, I would not like to think I am somehow supporting bigoted outfits. If someone doesn't want my business that's fine with me, F them. And, many others would do the same, LGBT or not. I don't like bigots, period, neither do many others.

[Zorra]

4. I don't believe that this is a good idea. Religious conservatives are RW authoritarians,

and legally sanctioning their hatred and bigotry will validate, justify, and reinforce hatred and bigotry in their belief systems.

"You see? Both God and Government know that hating and persecuting Jews LGBT is OK."

[dsc]

5. It currently is Ok in many states

I am just saying let them do it, but let me know ahead of time so I don't give them my money.

[Zorra]

8. I understand; but I believe that enacting a specific new "Jim Crow" type law is a bad precedent.

That said, I would like some mechanism for identifying these businesses also.

I make it very obvious that I am LGBT at all times, for activism purposes, but have never been refused service because of it. Nowadays, I try to only patronize establishments that I know are LGBT friendly. Religious conservatives in business have cheated and or insulted me because I was LGBT many times in the past, and now I only eat in restaurants that are LGBT owned or friendly, because I worry that some deranged religious conservative will poison me. In my opinion, anyone who hates another group of people so much that they support passing laws in order to discriminate against that group is fully capable of deliberately and maliciously harming a member of that group.

A rainbow flag or equality sign in the window of a business means safety to me.

[egold2604]

7. I believe the bakery that refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple went out of business

[Wounded Bear]

9. It's already been happening for years...

What do you think the derivation of the old "We reserve the right to refuse service to anybody" signs came from.

Hint, they weren't there before the Civil Rights act.

[dsc]

11. that isn't the same thing

they are discriminating and not taking accountability for doing so.

[CincyDem]

13. BTW - love your icon. Never gets old and wears well in all discussions. n/t

[dsc]

14. Turns out I am not the only one with this idea

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/02/27/a-baker-refused-to-make-your-wedding-cake

You could say I'm torn.

But here's a suggestion for all the hatey, butt-sore, anti-gay bakers in Arizona: start an organization—The Arizona Association of Homophobic Bakers—and publicly identify yourselves as homophobic bakers. Put up a website with a list of bakeries that don't want to do business with LGBT people. Put signs in your windows that clearly state that gay and lesbian customers are not welcome and will be turned away.

As Anderson Cooper pointed out earlier this week, gays and lesbians are not covered by existing anti-discrimination law in Arizona. So it's perfectly legal right now for bakers—and florists and caterers and photographers—to discriminate against LGBT customers. Discriminating against LGBT people was legal in Arizona before Jan Brewer vetoed the turn-away-the-gays bill, and it remains legal after her veto. So homophobic bakers who identify themselves as haters and bigots run no legal risk. They can't be sued by the individual gay people they discriminate against and the authorities can't fine 'em or shut 'em down. Don't want gay customers? Great. Let us know who you are. Put up a list online, hang signs in your windows, and we will take our business elsewhere.

The homophobic bakers of Arizona will do no such thing of course. Because hater bakers know that putting "We Don't Serve Gay People" signs in their windows will not only cost them our business—business they don't want—but also the business of our straight friends, family members, and neighbors. Business they do want. And they'll also lose the business of fair-minded straight people who think discrimination is wrong. And they'll lose the business of straight people who worry about where this kind of selective, hypocritical, faith-rationalized discrimination could ultimately lead.

But if homophobic bakers don't have the courage to put up a list—if they don't have the courage of their own sincerely-held, faith-based convictions—then LGBT activists in Arizona should do it for them. How many bakeries are there in Arizona? Can't be more than few hundred. Get a group of people together, call all the bakeries in the state, find out who doesn't want our business, and post the list online. Then encourage LGBT people and our friends, family members, and neighbors to consult that handy list of hater bakers before ordering wedding or birthday cakes.

That's not the way homophobic bakers want it to work. Or homophobic florists or photographers or caterers for that matter. They want to quietly and discreetly refuse to serve individual customers who happen to be gay without their other customers finding out. They wanna hate on the down low because they know that customers who may not be gay themselves—people who know and love LGBT people, customers who don't approve of discrimination on principal, other minorities who worry that they could be next—will take their business elsewhere.