Don’t Ban Gays; Ban Politicians!

Arizona is in the midst of of one of its habitual
tussles over pointless and stupid legislation intended to make some
portion of the population feel unwelcome. In this case, Senate Bill
1062 is intended to give state businesses a right they already
have: to deny service to gay and lesbian customers. Shunning gay
customers is an expression, however unsavory, of free association
rights that has never been abridged in the Copper state, and needs
no encouragement on the part of lawmakers. In response, a Tucson
pizzeria is exercising its free association rights in a much more
praise-worthy way: by telling state legislators to take their
hunger, and business, elsewhere.

As Reason‘s
Scott Shackford documented, “sexual orientation is not included
in Arizona’s
public accommodation laws. Discrimination against gays is
actually legal in a lot of places in America still. What Senate
Bill 1062 does is essentially tweak the state’s existing freedom of
religion laws to say that, no really, people in Arizona have the
right to the free exercise of religion.”

So Arizona lawmakers are basically just being homophobic pricks.
They’re playing off of incidents in other states where
socially conservative bakers and photographers have been penalized
for turning away gay and lesbian customers (the wisdom of insisting
that somebody who hates you bake your wedding cake is a topic for
another conversation). Those other states’ laws don’t apply in
Arizona, so this is grandstanding.

In response, Rocco’s Little Chicago Pizzeria posted a sign in
its window (above right), and a
brief and pithy statement on its Facebook
page.

As a longtime employer and feeder of the gay community, Rocco’s
reserves the right to eject any State Senators we see fit to kick
out. That is all.

Owner Rocco DiGrazia told the
Arizona Daily Star that he has a lot of gay customers
and employees, so “why discriminate against anybody? I’m just
trying to make some food.”

Of course, he is discriminating—against meddling
politicians who offend his sense of right and wrong. That’s
essentially what some socially conservative business owners have
done by shunning homosexual customers, and it’s a legitimate
expression of rights in both cases. Personally, I think that
politicians of any stripe are a beter target for such shunning than
are people who happen to live a lifestyle with which some people
disagree—lawmakers inherently inflict their preferences on others,
while gays and lesbians do not.

But if the best response to speech is more speech, shunning is a
perfectly good response to shunning.