Readers React: Using religion as an excuse for anti-gay discimination

To the editor: If businesses are allowed to rebuff same-sex couples on religious grounds, how will we handle it? Will the businesses that choose not to serve gay and lesbian couples put up signs saying “Gays and lesbians not served here”? (“Should religion give businesses an excuse to not serve gay couples?,” Feb. 5)

How else will gay couples know which businesses will serve us? Are we expected just to go in and be told that we are sinners as we plan for our most joyful events?

Seeing as some business owners reportedly complained when other companies in Mississippi put up signs saying they serve everyone, it seems to me that they know this is discrimination, even though they’ve used terms meant to hide their true purpose.

Daniel McVey, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I confess: I discriminate against anyone who would bar other people on the basis of age, race, sex, disability, national origin, gender or even religion.

Lucky for me, bigots, homophobes, misogynists and religious supremacists are not, as such, members of a protected class that, having been historically subjected to invidious discrimination, warrants constitutional protection for fairness and equality in our society.

Thus, for now, my discrimination is not illegal. If it becomes illegal to discriminate against discriminators, I’ll simply start a new religion against discrimination in order to get an exemption.

Meanwhile, I will continue to exclude the excluders. After all, sometimes discrimination is an exercise in good taste.

David R. Fertig, Pasadena

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