Here is my take on the issue:
Generally, businesses should not be allowed to discriminate. If you offer widgets for sale to the public, you are not allowed refuse to sell to customers based on race, religion, or sexual orientation. The key is when you are engaged in commerce and offering your goods to the public. When you make your choice to go into business, you must accept the responsibilities that go with it.
This is fair to all involved, because both parties have a choice:
The merchant is free to create the widget in any way he wants. He does not have to violate any of his beliefs when creating the widget. He can choose to make only those widgets that he is comfortable with.
But once he creates the widget, he cannot discriminate WHO he sells it to. Now, it’s the customer who has the right to decide whether or not to buy one of the widgets.
But where the issue gets complicated is when you are not selling widgets, but products custom made for each customer. If the couple came in and wanted to buy a standard cake off display, I would say that they had every right to buy that cake.
But, if the couple wanted something different, even something as minor as having two grooms statuettes on top, I would then side with the baker, since they are no longer desiring to buy what the merchant has offered to other customers. They are wanted something that he has not offered to other customers.
Ultimately, merchants should have the freedom to sell only items they want to sell, but customers should have to freedom to buy that item once the merchant has decided to offer it to the public. When the customer wants to buy what the merchant sells, the merchant must sell it. But when the customer wants the merchant to create something new, or alter what he has already created, the decision then shifts back to the merchant.
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