With all the outrage over a small Indiana pizza joint that admitted that they would not cater a homosexual wedding if asked to do so, it’s important to realize that the true beneficiaries of the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act aren’t religiously-motivated bigots, it’s society as a whole and gay rights activists in particular.
Why? Because it allows people to expose their bigotry to the free market, which, in turn, has severe economic consequences.
Bigotry isn’t going to end because the government outlaws bigoted behavior. Despite what the left might wish, wholesale change in American doesn’t come from government mandates or laws, it comes from society’s evolving morals. While government regulations mandating acceptance merely pushes bigotry into the shadows, allowing those with intolerant views to exist in the open gives society the opportunity to respond with a force liberals can only dream of the government harnessing.
Using the government to target bigotry allows bigots to rightfully claim they have been targeted for their individual beliefs by an institution that isn’t supposed to judge the merits of any individual ideology. And while government intervention might be a decent enough motivator for the casual bigot to re-examine his or her views, the collective weight of a majority actively shunning those who hold bigoted views is a much more powerful motivator, with the added bonus of not giving bigots an entity to blame for their misfortune.
In other words, because a majority of Americans generally accept that gay people deserve equal rights, opportunities, and treatment, keeping the government from preventing bigots to reveal their preferences empowers society and gay rights activists to know which people or institutions to actively avoid.
Communities that were once looked down on but are now accepted by society shouldn’t look to silence dissent; they have so much to gain by allowing those who hold on to ridiculous notions to air their grievances in public. And while Memories Pizza might have raised a good chunk of change from the internet after being boycotted, remember this: one time donations from around the country might stem the tide of their financial losses in the short-term, but it does not undo the long-term damage the company has done to its image and reputation.
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