"[The ad] listed the references to four Bible passages, Romans 1, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 on the left side. An equal sign was placed between the verse references and a drawing of two males holding hands overlaid with the universal nullification symbol – a red circle with a diagonal bar.
"Under Saskatchewan's Human Rights Code, Hugh Owens of Regina, Saskatchewan, was found guilty along with the newspaper, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, of inciting hatred and was forced to pay damages of 1,500 Canadian dollars to each of the three homosexual men who filed the complaint.
"The rights code allows for expression of honestly held beliefs, but the commission ruled that the code can place "reasonable restriction" on Owens's religious expression, because the ad exposed the complainants "to hatred, ridicule, and their dignity was affronted on the basis of their sexual orientation.""
The ruling was later upheld by the Province's appeals court. A copy of the ad and more background can be found at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31080
My feeling is that you should be very, very slow to give your friends power that you wouldn't want to see in the hands of your enemies. After all, didn't straight people for years say that gay people should remain closeted because acknowledging their very existence affronted the dignity of straight people? And if straight people said that it did affront their dignity, it's hard to argue that it really didn't. In a free society, one must be willing to accept various affronts--else no one could ever say or do anything controversial.
The most egregious Canadian case
"[The ad] listed the references to four Bible passages, Romans 1, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 on the left side. An equal sign was placed between the verse references and a drawing of two males holding hands overlaid with the universal nullification symbol – a red circle with a diagonal bar.
"Under Saskatchewan's Human Rights Code, Hugh Owens of Regina, Saskatchewan, was found guilty along with the newspaper, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, of inciting hatred and was forced to pay damages of 1,500 Canadian dollars to each of the three homosexual men who filed the complaint.
"The rights code allows for expression of honestly held beliefs, but the commission ruled that the code can place "reasonable restriction" on Owens's religious expression, because the ad exposed the complainants "to hatred, ridicule, and their dignity was affronted on the basis of their sexual orientation.""
The ruling was later upheld by the Province's appeals court. A copy of the ad and more background can be found at:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31080
My feeling is that you should be very, very slow to give your friends power that you wouldn't want to see in the hands of your enemies. After all, didn't straight people for years say that gay people should remain closeted because acknowledging their very existence affronted the dignity of straight people? And if straight people said that it did affront their dignity, it's hard to argue that it really didn't. In a free society, one must be willing to accept various affronts--else no one could ever say or do anything controversial.
RAS