You Can't Refuse to Photograph a Gay Wedding

Here's a story that should help chill free speech in New Mexico, if not America:

An evangelical Christian photographer was brought before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission after she declined for religious reasons to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony.

When Elaine Huguenin of Albuquerque, N.M., declined in September 2006 an e-mail request from a lesbian couple to photograph their ceremony, one of the lesbians responded by lodging a human rights complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, the state agency charged with enforcing state anti-discrimination laws and sending cases to the commission to be adjudicated.

Vanessa Willock sought an injunction to prohibit Mrs. Huguenin and her business, Elane Photography, from declining any future request to photograph a same-sex ceremony. The agency agreed to hear Miss Willock's complaint, the latest case brought before tribunals in the U.S. and Canada that free-speech advocates say threaten expression across North America.

Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, a "legal ministry" that is representing the Huguenins and defends religious freedom and traditional values, said that "Elane Photography is basically a husband-and-wife small, little commercial photography business" run by "devout Christians who have a variety of things they don't want to take pictures of."

Photography also is a form of artistic expression, Mr. Lorence said, and the First Amendment protects artists like Mrs. Huguenin from being compelled by the state to engage in expression that violates their religious convictions.

The First Amendment "is pretty clear that Christians should not be penalized for abiding by their beliefs," Mr. Lorence said.

Could you have ever imagined that in America a Christian could be drug before a "Human Rights Commission" to answer for refusing to take part in something the Christian believed was wrong?
The country is changing, and not for the better.

UPDATE: Thanks to Adrian Warnock for linking to this post. I think this is my first link at the home of the "Warnies".

In thinking about this story a little more I couldn't help but wonder why the gay bride/groom/it has a "human right" to have their photo taken by this particular photographer, but the photographer does not have a right to choose for whom she works? Doesn't something seem backwards in this whole thing? Is Mrs. Huguenin the only photographer in Albuquerque, NM?

If most people were unable to contract a certain professional for a job, they would simply seek another professional willing to do the work. Apparently, it doesn't work that way in gay community. If you don't get what you want, you get to stamp your feet, fuss and fume, and get the "Human Rights Commission" to force people to do your bidding. It's good to be the gay.

Too bad that approach doesn't confirm "human rights", but actually denies them.

UPDATE: The photographer is fined $6,600 by the "Human Rights Commission". What a joke.