Balkinization  

Monday, July 26, 2021

Gay Rights, Religion, and Giving Peace a Chance

Andrew Koppelman

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia was the latest skirmish in the ongoing war over gay rights and religious liberty. The conflict concerns, in various forms, the question whether religious people who conscientiously object to facilitating same-sex marriages, and who therefore decline to provide cakes, photography, or other services, be exempted from anti-discrimination laws. The adoption agency in Fulton, which refused to provide certification for same-sex couples, offered a different instance of the same problem. The Court managed to avoid handing either side a dramatic victory. The struggle is certain to continue.

This fight is unnecessary, and it feeds the worst tendencies in contemporary American politics. 

I explain in my contribution to a symposium on Fulton at the Berkley Center blog, here.

Among the other contributions, I found the one by Michael Wear, formerly Obama's director of evangelical outreach, particularly moving and persuasive.


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