Do Businesses Have the Right to Refuse Service Based on Moral/Religious Objections?

[Soon]

Originally Posted by DomnNC

See Ender and HowSoon that's the crux of the problem, ya'll are coming at people in the US with your laws in Canada which WE do not have in the states for the most part. You can't interject your laws upon us and beat down our responses because they don't mesh with yours because you guys ARE protected. I'm speaking from the standpoint of the laws in the US. I live in NC where there are NO laws on the state books regarding discrimination against the LGBT community, at ALL. We are fair targets and open game to anyone who wants to discriminate against us, except in municipalities that have passed such laws which are few and far in between.

So yes, a company can ask me to write a system that tracks its LGBT employees, a church could ask me to do the same thing in regards to their congregation and it's perfectly legal and acceptable for them to do so and it's perfectly legal to fire said employees or kick members of a congregation out just because they are LGBT as it wouldn't fit within THEIR moral compass (example - a family owned business where the owner may be extremely religious). It doesn't matter if I know what the outcome of those numbers will be, but being in the bible belt I can just imagine that they would be used for no good and with detriment to my community here.

So should I not have the preference and right as a small business owner to say NO, HELL NO to those people who would wish harm upon my community by taking their source of income or kicking them out of a church that they may happen to love? or Should I be forced into doing this programming for them with the threat of a lawsuit if such a law existed on the books stating I cannot refuse my service to anyone for any reason at all?

Remember, they have NO laws to protect them in NC, I have seen people terminated and people kicked out of churches in NC simply because a person happens to be a part of the LGBT community.

Dom,

I wrote that you DID had the right to refuse them service based on their actions.


The question I posed in the poll does not say anything about the laws in where you or I reside.

My question is do you BELIEVE (regardless of what is or is not on the books), that business owners have the right to refuse service based on religious or moral objections.

I am not beating anyone down. I am responding to posts and expressing my opinion.

Yes, Ender, Bete and myself are from Canada; however, the USA DOES have protected classes for some groups (and not for others), so I am unsure wherein lies the discrepancy in attitudes towards protected classes.

Just b/c Canada has laws protecting sexual orientation and, soon, gender identity, doesn't mean that citizens of the USA don't understand the idea of protected classes. You already have federal (and local -- some more for others) protections--they are already in place to prevent discrimination based on certain characteristics of the population.


Are you willing to give up laws that currently protect certain classes b/c you believe that the moral and religious objections of a business owner trumps those of a customer?

To me, those who voted yes they do agree with the right to refuse service based on a business owner's moral or religious objections, then it would make sense to remove all current local and federal protections and certainly not work for the inclusion of any other protected classes.