By: Grace Gonzalez
Colorado baker back in court over second LGBTQ bias allegation
John Phillis, a baker from Lakewood, Colorado, argues that he is being punished by the state for refusing to bake a cake for a gender transition party.
His lawyers have decided to take action as far as suing the state for violating Phillips’ first amendment right to practice his faith. However, this isn’t the first time that Phillips’ has been sent to court for discrimination against LGBTQ. In 2012, she refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple.
This is definitely an interesting case because although our society has become more accepting of the LGBTQ community, there are still many conservative people of religious faith who also want their rights protected.
In my opinion, it’s the government’s duty to really investigate thoroughly the baker’s approach of handling these situations because although he has a right to the first amendment, his way of handling the situation could also be very aggressive and THAT also should be regulated.
This, however, raises the question of whether or not more businesses will use the same excuse in a way to disguise discrimination and how will the government implement new regulations that protect the rights of both sides.
Thoughts?
Surge of Migrant Families Tests Border Patrol
As more refugees have flooded the borders, Border Patrol has proven to be inadequately handling this crisis. Recently, it’s been more crowds of unaccompanied children and Border Patrol is receiving backlash for the number of children who are dying in their custody.
Border Patrol officials argue that their facilities are meant to house deportees for a couple of hours and then send them back to Mexico, but with so many children seeking asylum, it’s becoming a crisis of illness and lack of resources to housing so many refugees. There is a large demand for a reorganization of these facilities because Border Patrol is ineffective in handling this kind of crisis.
In my opinion, it seems that the Border Patrol really only carries out tactics of terror and panic in order to scare immigrants away but in this case, we’re dealing with a much bigger humanitarian issue. These asylum seekers are facing terrible conditions and as a country that likes to “step in” and play the hero in many crises, this too requires a complex plan to deal with rather than just scaring them away.
Despite what your stance is on immigration issues, this is a humantarian issue and supporting the continued mishandling of children by Border Patrol is malicious.