RIDICULOUS!

It's fascism.

It depends on who runs the farmers market. Ours is run by an independent group who has farmers apply for membership in the market before allowing them to participate. It's not owned or run by the city, but it IS on city property. Wondering what the situation is in the OP? If it's city owned and run then he should be allowed to participate.

Wait a minute! There's a LOT that is missing from this
story! The city is trying to ban him from the public
farmers' market because of what he does on his own
private property? Does the farmer open his homestead
to the general public for weddings/events? Did the OP
and his wife refuse service to a gay couple? Or is the
city, in its infinite wisdom, just declaring the farmer
persona non gratia because he expressed his views
on marriage in a public forum (Facebook)?

They can't do that. They should lose.
____________________________

dead wrong

burns07 wrote:

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They can't do that. They should lose.
____________________________

dead wrong

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 I think you misunderstand me.  The city should lose.  The city doesn't get to RETALIATE against people for what they do on their own property, whether you agree or not.  They are two separate issues. 

FNW wrote:

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But is a private farm considered a place of public accommodation? If so, they cannot discriminate. If not, they can. And does Michigan, or the city in which the farm is located, have law that includes sexual orientation as a protected class? If not, the farmers are correct. Or does Michigan have a law which preserves private businesses right of refusal based on religious beliefs?

Do these farmers open their farm to the public? I understand LL has read somewhere (not in this article obviously) where they allow weddings on their property. Do they open their farm to allow the public to come on and pick their crops (U-pick)? Or do they limit public access to a store on the outskirts of the property? Do they just allow friends of friends or family only to get married on their property? I would need more information as to public access before I could determine whether they have the right of refusal to a class, and more information to determine whether this class is even protected. (Many states are enacting bills which would allow private businesses right of refusal to gays based on religious beliefs. I would be curious to know if Michigan has such a law).

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 Doesn't matter.  One does not justify the other.  These are separate issues.

Fascism:

Definition: an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
synonyms: authoritarianism · totalitarianism · dictatorship · despotism · autocracy · Nazism · rightism · nationalism · xenophobia · racism · anti-Semitism · jingoism · isolationism · neofascism · neo-Nazism

(in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.

flan

Thanks flan, but i know what the definition of fascism is. The Democrat party used to have some ideals about liberty and private property, etc. Now, they are the party of Big Govt Control.

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini coined the term totalitario in the early 1920s to describe the new fascist state of Italy, which he further described as: “All within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.”

Obama was absolutely in favor of "central planning". The Govt dictates all.

flan327 wrote:

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Lindley wrote:

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It's sounds like it could be used for extreme left wing too.

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 I think it could, but I associate it more with right wing.

flan

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 In the broadest sense, totalitarianism is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. 

Totalitarianism is often distinguished from dictatorship, despotism, or tyranny by its supplanting of all political institutions with new ones and its sweeping away of all legal, social, and political traditions. The totalitarian state pursues some special goal, such as industrialization or conquest, to the exclusion of all others. All resources are directed toward its attainment regardless of the cost. Whatever might further the goal is supported; whatever might foil the goal is rejected. This obsession spawns an ideology that explains everything in terms of the goal, rationalizing all obstacles that may arise and all forces that may contend with the state. The resulting popular support permits the state the widest latitude of action of any form of government. Any dissent is branded evil, and internal political differences are not permitted. Because pursuit of the goal is the only ideological foundation for the totalitarian state, achievement of the goal can never be acknowledged.

Under totalitarian rule, traditional social institutions and organizations are discouraged and suppressed; thus the social fabric is weakened and people become more amenable to absorption into a single, unified movement. Participation in approved public organizations is at first encouraged and then required. Old religious and social ties are supplanted by artificial ties to the state and its ideology. As pluralism and individualism diminish, most of the people embrace the totalitarian state’s ideology. The infinite diversityamong individuals blurs, replaced by a mass conformity (or at least acquiescence) to the beliefs and behaviour sanctioned by the state.

Large-scale, organized violence becomes permissible and sometimes necessary under totalitarian rule, justified by the overriding commitment to the state ideology and pursuit of the state’s goal.

 

  Hmm.. sounds like the direction of the modern Dem Party, in my opinion.

Lawyerlady wrote:

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FNW wrote:

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But is a private farm considered a place of public accommodation? If so, they cannot discriminate. If not, they can. And does Michigan, or the city in which the farm is located, have law that includes sexual orientation as a protected class? If not, the farmers are correct. Or does Michigan have a law which preserves private businesses right of refusal based on religious beliefs?

Do these farmers open their farm to the public? I understand LL has read somewhere (not in this article obviously) where they allow weddings on their property. Do they open their farm to allow the public to come on and pick their crops (U-pick)? Or do they limit public access to a store on the outskirts of the property? Do they just allow friends of friends or family only to get married on their property? I would need more information as to public access before I could determine whether they have the right of refusal to a class, and more information to determine whether this class is even protected. (Many states are enacting bills which would allow private businesses right of refusal to gays based on religious beliefs. I would be curious to know if Michigan has such a law).

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 Doesn't matter.  One does not justify the other.  These are separate issues.

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 I agree.  I was just addressing the allegations of illegal discrimination.  Even if they were guilty of violating discrimination laws, what does the law say is punishment for said violation?  Denial of the right to sell their goods at farmer's markets?  Doubt it.