Mitt Romney’s been engaging in illegal activity — playing the rock tune “Panic Switch” on the campaign trail without permission from the band Silversun Pickups — this according to the band which fired off a cease and desist letter to the candidate today.
According to the band’s frontman Brian Aubert, Romney has been using their 2009 hit … even though no one ever asked them for permission, but it’s pretty clear he wouldn’t have gotten it even if he asked.
So, let’s be clear. The same folks who would erupt in righteous indignation if a corporation took a stance on marriage, or refuse service to someone based on race or creed or sexual orientation are somehow secure in the moral stance that they can refuse service based on someone’s political persuasion?
Can you imagine the outrage if a sign maker refused service just because someone was gay?
Last Monday, Mike Reis and his partner, Mark Hurst, placed a 2,500-flier order with Kent-based company Access Printed Media, which advertises “business and promotional printing you can rely on.” The flyers would announce the grand opening of Diesel, a new bear barslated to open later this summer on 14th Avenue. The couple planned on handing out the flyers—which depict the silhouette of a man leaning against a ’50s-style gas pump—during Gay Pride weekend. “We chose Access Printed Media because we wanted to support another local business and we knew a woman who worked there,” says Reis.
But on Tuesday, they received an email from the printer. “I have some bad news. :/,” wrote Sarah Wheeler, an employee with Access Printed Media. “Not that we’re against homosexuals at all, but because knowing that our printed products will be advertising and promoting the kind of lifestyle that goes against our morals is something that [the owner] can’t bring himself to do… :/”“We were horrified when we got the email,” says Reis. “I felt sickened, furious, humiliated. Obviously, they do have a problem with homosexuals, but they couldn’t even pick up the phone and call us. You’d expect this kind of close-mindedness somewhere else—out of the state or east of the mountains. Not here.”
Sub homosexuals with republicans in the paragraph above. Still agree with BOTH Silversun Pickups and Mike and Mark?
But the ACLU of WA says the printer can’t legally turn down the job. “The print shop’s refusal to provide services violated state law,” states ACLU spokesman Doug Honig. “The Washington Law Against Discrimination… bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and require[s] businesses open to the general public to serve all customers equally. The bar owner can file a complaint with the WA Human Rights Commission. The ACLU would be glad to hear from the bar owner and provide assistance if he wishes to pursue the matter.”
I wonder if the ACLU would be willing to provide assistance if Mitt Romney called?