Court Orders Business Owners To Fix Their Christianity With Diversity Training

I wrote about this case, and many others, last year. A quasi-jizya, if you will. A court has ruled that a Kentucky business must undergo “diversity training” to fix its Christianity.

A Lexington human rights commission has ruled that a t-shirt company unlawfully discriminated against a gay organization in its refusal to print the group’s Lexington Pride Festival shirts – and has ordered the company employees to undergo diversity training.

Greg Munson, of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission, ruled on Tuesday that Hands On Originals’ refusal to print gay pride festival shirts in 2012 did not violate the vendor’s right to free speech and the free exercise of religion, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Hands On Originals had argued that its refusal was because it is a Christian company and disagreed with the message of the shirt – a stylized numeral 5 with rainbow colors and a list of sponsors for the “Lexington Pride Festival.”

The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization found that the company violated the city’s fairness ordinance, which prohibits public businesses from discriminating against people based upon their sexual orientation. In documents released by both the GLSO and Hands On Originals, the commission noted that the t-shirt company should cease “discriminating because of sexual orientation.”

“The evidence of record shows that the respondent discriminated against GLSO because of its members’ actual or imputed sexual orientation by refusing to print and sell to them the official shirts for the 2012 Lexington Pride Festival,” said Munson.

[…]

The ruling dictates that Hands On Originals must not discriminate in the future and that company employees must undergo diversity training within the next year.

Hands On Originals even provided contacts and quotes for other printers, but Lexington's Gay and Lesbian Services Organization wanted to punish Hands On Orignials for their Christian beliefs and engaged in lawfare. Apparently, commerce is akin to indentured servitude now in the United States. Legitmate question: how long until this progresses beyond commerce?