Change

When it comes to human rights, how much have we really changed? Women are still compensated much lower than men, racism still exists in all facets of our society, and the LGBT community is still the victim of many acts of prejudice.

Just a few days ago, Just Cookies, a bakery in Indianapolis, refused to bake cupcakes for the gay community at Purdue University, who were going to use the cupcakes for their celebration of next month's National Coming Out Day. Although the bakery is located in the City Market, which is an equal accommodations establishment, owner David Stockton stated the following to justify his prejudice:

"We're a family-run business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought maybe it was best not to do that."

What does that even mean? “Best not to do that”? Really? I mean what could possibly happen from baking some cupcakes? Is David worried that his daughters will turn gay from doing business with the local gay community? Or is he worried that his daughter might actually learn to be accepting of the gay community? Whatever the reason, his actions are very inappropriate.




This situation really grinds my gears. I really can’t seem to get past it. Growing up, I was afforded a very accepting childhood, so dealing with ignorant and close-minded people is very painful (please excuse my frustration).

America, can we please get it together. We pride ourselves in this country as the land of the free, but when it comes to providing equal rights and doing away with discrimination, we like to turn the other cheek. Honestly I was under the impression that we had made some major strides in the past 50 years, but it seems that it was nothing more than just small step in the right direction. Small steps are not enough. We need to take incidents like this one more seriously; we should boycott such institutions, making a public statement that we as a nation do not accept this behavior.

In the words of the Dali Lama,

"All human beings, whatever their cultural or historical background, suffer when they are intimidated, imprisoned or tortured . . . We must, therefore, insist on a global consensus, not only on the need to respect human rights worldwide, but also on the definition of these rights . . . for it is the inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity, and they have an equal right to achieve that."