On the cake issue, I want to bring up the Arlene's Flowers lawsuit in Oregon. A couple used the same florist for 9 years before she denied them flowers for their wedding. While I don't agree with suing her, I can understand the couple's frustration with her. In the 9 years they did business with her, that also meant that they didn't do business with someone who was legitimately accepting of LGB people in their business practices. If they had known this 9 years ago, they would have been able to support another business that may have folded in that time, possibly owned by another LGB person.

Part of our vie for tolerance has been giving up our communities and often our support of LGB-owned businesses in favor of assimilating into the larger heterosexual society. It's meant we don't know who to go to when we need a good or service because we are alienated from one another in our local areas. Theoretically, if LGB businesses have all folded over the years due to lack of support, in certain locales we may have nowhere to go to get certain items.