We were talking about marriage, and for some reason you are talking about bakeries and businesses.
Those are direct correlations. You might not agree that the word marriage has a religious connection ( I think that it probably does, and those offended are not bigots). But you can agree that the change in that law is directly hurting religious freedoms due to its ripple effects (the business closures and discrimination lawsuits).
Sexual orientation is a protected class in those states irrespective of marriage. Those businesses are not allowed to deny service based on sexual orientation. The marriage is not the issue.
That is such an interesting moral grey area. I understand and agree it is great that everyone be able to do whatever they want without fear that something about them will keep them from being allowed to access to what they see as basic human rights. Id be interested to know why a homosexual couple would go to a place that doesn't agree with the practice for the cake vs another that happily supports it. I also believe that baking a cake for a customer doesn't mean you support their lifestyle, but not everyone feels that way. This current situation is a "do these things or we will take what is yours" situation which is scary. If only because of the president it can set.
I'm glad we are doing something to battle discrimination, but in your perfect dream society how long is the list of protected classes? What protection is fair? Should it be that if I decide as a private business owner I don't want to serve KU fans that I should pay any KU fan that walks through my doors and I turn away hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages?
The situation affords us little retrospective knowledge. Time will allow us proper perspective, but in the meantime I would rather protect our civil liberties than thirty years from now be like, "whoops, should have tried to stop that." So I encourage us to think about this stuff instead of just letting it happen.
Also, I don't believe the courts of the justice system closed any of those businesses, the free market court of public opinion may have.
Nah, they had to close because the discrimination lawsuits granted the other side of the disagreement hundreds of thousands of dollars.