As June, and thereby ‘Pride Month,’ comes to an end, the LGBT movement has faced significant pushback across many sectors this year, with some corporations having a much more low-key display of support for the LGBT movement and others, such as Target and Bud Light owners Anheuser Busch, facing significant boycotts.
In the United States, a milestone court ruling took place on Friday, June 30th, after the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled in favour of a Christian web designer who had refused to create wedding websites for LGBT couples, citing her Christian beliefs.
The court, which is made up of six conservative justices and three liberal justices, ruled 6-3 and found that the U.S. First Amendment to the Constitution, which confers freedom of speech and religion, prohibited U.S. states from forcing people to deliver messages that contradicted their own religious beliefs.
Lorie Smith, the plaintiff in the case and a resident of the state of Colorado, argued that the First Amendment protected her from antidiscrimination laws enacted by her state that seek to allegedly protect LGBT rights in public spaces, an NBC news report states.
Smith initially sued the state in 2016, arguing that she wanted to be able to reject the business of same-sex couples due to her personal religious beliefs but had never been punished under the antidiscrimination law herself.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion for the Supreme Court, arguing that states could not compel speech, while also noting the complexity of free speech cases.
“Does anyone think a speech writer loses his First Amendment right to choose for whom he works if he accepts money in return? Or that a visual artist who accepts commissions from the public does the same?” Justice Gorsuch wrote.
“Many of the world’s great works of literature and art were created with an expectation of compensation. Nor, this Court has held, do speakers shed their First Amendment protections by employing the corporate form to disseminate their speech,” he added.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissenting opinion arguing that the ruling was, “a backlash to the movement for liberty and equality for gender and sexual minorities.”
“It is also familiar. When the civil rights and women’s rights movements sought equality in public life, some public establishments refused. Some even claimed, based on sincere religious beliefs, constitutional rights to discriminate,” Sotomayor added.
American conservative commentators welcomed the ruling, with Daily Wire host Matt Walsh stating, “What a great way to end Pride Month. Gay activists do not have the right to force you to work for them. You are not a slave. You have freedom of association. It never should have been necessary to clarify this, but thank God sanity prevailed.”
The case comes after another famous free speech case that involved a baker in Colorado who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding.
Baker Jack Phillips was asked to create a gay wedding cake in 2012 but refused due to his religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman.
The gay couple, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, later filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission which agreed with the pair and found that Phillips had violated the state’s anti-discrimination law.
Phillips appealed the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and in 2018, the Court ruled in favour of Phillips, citing that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had been hostile to Phillips’ religious beliefs but left some questions on religious liberty open.
Friday’s Supreme Court ruling could have further reaching effects, however, as NBC News claims that it could be used to challenge anti-discrimination laws that have been enacted in at least 29 states across the country that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in public accommodations.
