Now Tim Gill, a tech millionaire and LGBTQ activist is promising in an interview at Rolling Stone to further target Christians, and presumably Muslims, who hesitate to fully embrace the progressive orthodoxy on same-sex marriage.
In the RS interview Mr. Gill promises to "punish the wicked".
Bre Payton gives us some details at The Federalist. Here are a few excerpts:
For more than two decades, the software programmer [Gill] has poured an estimated $422 million into various gay rights causes. After the Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal in all 50 states in 2015, Gill turned his attention and resources to targeting Christians.Payton quotes from the Rolling Stone interview before elaborating:
The common sense solution to this problem is for the nuptial couple to be referred to other businesspersons who are willing to perform the service requested and refrain from state coercion as long as reasonable alternatives exist, but this would manifest tolerance, and some people, like Mr. Gill, aren't interested in tolerance for those with whom they disagree. They want to punish.The election of Donald Trump, who claims to support gay rights but stocked his administration with anti-LGBTQ extremists, has only emboldened those looking to erase the gains of the past decade. Gill refuses to go on the defense. ‘We’re going into the hardest states in the country,’ he says. ‘We’re going to punish the wicked.’Allow me to add some context. After the Obergefell ruling in 2015, which forced all 50 states to perform same-sex marriages, several state legislatures passed protections to ensure that those who object to participating in a same-sex wedding for religious reasons have recourse when hauled into courts or extralegal commissions for this belief. It’s these state laws that Gill and his various nonprofit entities have decided to go after — and persecute Christians along the way.
[R]eligious Americans still serve gay customers in myriad capacities, just as they do every other customer. Their objections are to being forced to use their artistic talents to proclaim particular speech they find fundamentally false or to be required to participate in a religious ceremony that conflicts with their consciences.
[T]hese laws simply ask that judges use a simple balancing test when ruling on cases involving a person’s religious freedom.
Nevertheless, asking a judge to think twice before demanding that a baker craft a wedding cake for a lesbian couple and stomping all over his freedom of expression is apparently a wicked deed that Gill intends to punish.
Does Mr. Gill think it's a "wicked deed" for a doctor opposed to abortion to refuse to perform them? Is it a "wicked deed" for a surgeon opposed to sex-change surgery to refuse to perform it? Is it a "wicked deed" for a surgeon who believes that those who wish to be made disabled are suffering from a mental illness to refuse to perform it? If so, why is it wicked, and if not, how are bakers and florists any different than those medical providers?
Along the way, Christian business owners have been maligned and demonized for not wanting to participate in a same-sex wedding. In Colorado, a cake baker was forced to change his company’s policies and provide training to staff after he objected to baking a cake for a gay couple. A Christian couple was slapped with a $13,000 fine for refusing to host a same-sex wedding on their property. People threatened to burn a pizza shop to the ground after its owners answered that they would happily serve gay customers, they just wouldn’t want to cater a gay wedding should they be asked to do so.I wonder what's going to happen the first time a Muslim baker or florist refuses to participate in a homosexual union. I'm pretty sure the left's courageous crusaders for LGBTQ rights, including Mr. Gill, will suddenly find something else to occupy their attention. There are always Christians out there for ideological bullies to attack, and Christians make for much safer victims.