When was the last time you saw a baker drop off a wedding cake at the reception then hop over to the ceremony to take their place as a groomsman? Or have you ever seen a wedding photographer put her camera down for a few minutes during the vows so she can read a poem about the happy couple? The answers are never and no.
That's because vendors don't "participate" in weddings—they get paid to do their jobs, which is what constitutes their involvement in the wedding as a business transaction.
Republicans, however, are now particularly fond of saying that business owners who don't support same-sex marriage shouldn't have to "participate" in same-sex weddings because the framing helps them skirt the issue of whether business owners are discriminating against LGBT patrons.
Here's Marco Rubio, attempting to create a distinction last month.
"I think there's a difference between not providing services to a person because of their identity, who they are or who they love, and saying, I'm not going to participate in an event, a same-sex wedding, because that violates my religious beliefs. There's a distinction between those two things."
No, there's not a distinction. If you're refusing services because the happy couple is gay instead of straight, then you're discriminating on the basis of someone's identity.
And here's Jeb Bush explaining why business owners should indeed be able to discriminate against gay Americans.
“A big country, a tolerant country, ought to be able to figure out the difference between discriminating against someone because of their sexual orientation and not forcing someone to participate in a wedding that they find goes against their moral beliefs,” he said.“This should not be this complicated. But Gosh, it is right now.”
Gosh, Jeb, maybe it's complicated because people like you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what separates a business transaction from being a matter of free speech.