While my thoughts and prayers go out to those suffering in Boston I want to discuss another topic today. I want to talk about discrimination a little. While reading news articles I ran across a story I want to try and summarize it for you. Essentially a lesbian couple wanted to stay at a bed and breakfast but the owner said no because of her religious beliefs. The two women decided to sue and they won because of Hawaii's very broad discrimination laws.
It's an interesting case to me for a variety of reasons. One is that I can understand the reluctance of the owner of the bed and breakfast. I can understand how her religious views could influence her business decisions. I also can understand to a degree how the lesbian couple felt. I've been refused service because of my service animal. I've been refused a hotel room actually. I've been told to leave stores or harassed by store managers until I did leave.
The catch is though that the couple in question is making a choice. I didn't choose to loose my hearing. I did choose to get a service animal to help deal with it. However engaging in a lifestyle like homosexuality is a definitive choice. Oddly enough you would think I would agree with the lesbian couple but I don't. I agree with the business owner. I think the best way to solve problems of discrimination isn't always through the legal system. I don't think it's right to trample someone else's rights just to have my own recognized.
Don't misunderstand me, I don't like discrimination and I don't think it's right. However I don't think the government should come in and tell businesses what to do like this. The best way to fix situations like this are to vote with your wallet. If you want a case where it works I have a long list. A great example is Netflix who refused to provide captioning for their online content. They went to court and they won but their refusal cost them a great deal. Netflix has lost huge contracts and countless numbers of subscribers in part because of their decision. It wasn't the courts that changed things it was people voting with their wallets.
If someone tells me that I can't stay in their hotel because of my service animal or that I shouldn't apply for a job because I'm Deaf it's on them. It's their problem of being bigoted idiots. However much I might despise their bigotry they've still got a right to it. Laws and courts won't change discrimination in our country, we will. We will change it when we vote with our wallets and decide for ourselves how we want to deal with it. When we decide how we want to treat other people. Well that's my two cents about it anyway.
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