Anti-gay discrimination isn’t
just offensive to gay people, as Wednesday’s episode of “Black-ish”
highlighted.
The ABC series,
which focuses on a black family and deals candidly with race, tackled the hot
topic of so-called “religious freedom” protecting businesses
(like bakeries) from having to serve LGBTQ people.
In the
episode, Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) Johnson are
shopping for a “gender reveal” cake for Bow’s upcoming baby shower. Dre, not
knowing what to call the confection that contains pink or blue filling
depending on the expected gender of the baby, asks for a “sex cake.”
Bow: We have a
kind of weird request. Depending on what is inside this envelope, we want you
to make a special cake that’s either blue or pink on the inside –
Dre: Come on,
Bow. Get to the point, all right? We need a sex cake.
Cashier 1:
What?
Bow: Uh, no,
no, no, no. We’re not perverts. We are just having a party to reveal the gender
of our baby.
Cashier 1: Oh!
You need a “Gender reveal cake.”
…
Bow: Oh, my God.
That’s so much fun. Great. So, you can do this? [ Laughing ]
Cashier 1: Yes.
Oh, yeah, we can bake any kind of cake you want. Oh! Just as long as it’s not
for a gay wedding.
The Johnsons,
clearly disturbed by this notion, move on to another bakery. They ask about the
shop’s stance on discrimination right out the gate.
“You don’t
discriminate against people based on race, gender, or sexual orientation, do
you?” Dre asks.
The new baker
replies, “Do not like French-Canadians,” and the Johnsons decide they can live
with that. It’s a comedic line, highlighting the absurdity of
discriminating against customers based on who they are. But the conservative
media watchdogs over at NewsBusters seem to be taking it
literally.
“Hmmm, so
apparently it’s ok to discriminate against people for who they are
(French-Canadian) but not what they choose to do (go against the biblical form
of marriage),” wrote NewsBusters‘ Lindsay Kornick.
Kornick goes on
to claim partial victory because the couple moved on from the anti-gay bakery
and found some place else to bake their cake.
“At least the
episode took the radical position that private business owners can serve or not
serve whomever they like with customers free to simply take their business
elsewhere,” Kornick argued. “Hey, maybe people CAN learn something from this
show after all.”
Of course, the
Johnsons would have had little other recourse, since they are presumably not
gay and therefor not the ones being discriminated against. Same-sex couples
being denied a wedding cake simply because they are gay is another story, as Sweet Cakes by Melissa found out in Oregon.
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