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| Bob Updegrove, photographer. "Photographing LGBTQ weddings would violate his faith" |
One of the more obnoxious tendencies of fundamentalist Christians is their insistence that their faith entitles them to determine who should and who should not have basic human rights, as though the human rights of others are in their gift.
They feel it's an attack on their civil libertes to deny them the right to deny civil liberties to others, especially minorities of their own choosing and people who don't conform to their dogma.
We have seen this manifest itself in the UK when entitled fundamentalist Christians have even gone to the European Court of Human Rignts, asking the court to rule that to deny them the right to deny basic human rights to others is a denial of their human rights, as Christians.
Invariably, the ECHR has knocked them back, explaining that under the European Convention on Human Rights, no-one has the right to deny rights to others, and a person's religious beliefs dont't entitle them discriminate against and victimise others, hard though that might be for them to accept.
American fundamentalists are, of course, no different in that arrogant assumption that their rights should be paramount in any conflict. One such fundamentalist is wedding photographer Bob Updegrove, who is suing the state of Virginia, claiming the fact that it denies him the right to deny services to same-sex couples is a violation of his right to victimise same-sex couples by refusing to provide wedding photography services to them.
His problem is with Virginia's Virginia Values Act. This Act:
... prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, public and private employment, public accommodations, and access to credit. The legislation also extends important protections to Virginians on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, and status as a veteran.When Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed the bill into law in April, he said LGBTQ Virginians would:
...no longer … have to fear being fired, evicted, or denied service in public places because of who they are.However, according to this report by Associated Press, photographer Bob Updegrove feels this denies him his God given right to continue to victimise LGBTQ Virginians. And, it scarcely needs saying, he believes Christianity has ownership of the institution of marriages so this should be denied to those who don't comply with Christian dogma.
His lawyers claim:
"Bob believes that God has called him to use his creative talents to promote messages that are at times counter-cultural in order to convey the truth about God” and that he can’t create photographic art for a same-sex wedding without violating his religious beliefs.In other words, Updegrove wants to continue to bully and victimise LGBTQ people and is blaming God for his discriminatory behaviour whilst claiming special privileges because of his religious faith. He feels that, as a privileged Christian, he should be the one to determine what is socially acceptable behaviour, not the elected government of Virginia. To entitle LGBTQ people to live in peace, free from fear and victimisation, is a violation of his entitlement to victimise and bully whomsoever he pleases, so long as he has a god to blame for it.
He is being supported in his efforts to maintain the right of Christians to bully victims of their choice by Alliance Defending Freedom, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, who have filed similar lawsuits this year in Minnesota, Washington state and Louisville, Kentucky. In classic Christian victim mode, they claim:
Our clients offer spiritual guidance, education, pregnancy support, and athletic opportunities to their communities because of the religious beliefs that motivate them. But Virginia’s new law forces these ministries to abandon and adjust their convictions or pay crippling fines — in direct violation of the Virginia Constitution and other state laws. Such government hostility toward people of faith has no place in a free society.In other words, so long as Christians have a god to blame, they should be allowed to behaviour howsoever they please, regardless of how antisocial their behaviour is.
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