Although I have agreed with Mr. Elfers on several topics, I have to take issue with his stance on discrimination against gays based on religious liberty (“Same Sex Marriage Act before Supreme Court” published July 27).

What Mr. Elfers and others with his opinion fail to see is the bigger picture. He sees a flower shop seller who doesn’t want to support gay marriage by selling flowers for a wedding based on her religious liberty. He says ‘there are other flower shops available’. Let’s look at the bigger picture. Once that door is open, is it then OK for a landlord not to rent to a gay couple based on his religious liberty?

Let’s make the picture bigger. Is it then also OK for a religious hospital, say, St. Elizabeth for instance, to refuse medical services to a gay person based on their religious liberty? Once you open that door and make it OK, where does it stop? Perhaps it should also then be OK for that same flower shop owner to not sell to a Christian couple because, according to her religion, Christians are infidels? Or perhaps that landlord doesn’t want to rent to that couple because they are atheists? Or perhaps that hospital no longer wants to provide medical assistance to somebody because they are Jewish? Where does it stop?

Once you open that door and say that it is alright for that flower lady to discriminate against somebody, anybody, based on her religious opinion, then disregarding the law based on your own religious belief makes discrimination legal, and that discrimination will no longer have to stop at your own front door. Next time it won’t be a legally married gay couple that is discriminated against. Next time it may be you.

Brenda Perron-Horner

Enumclaw