Employers should not be legally obliged to accommodate their employees' religious beliefs.

"For example, a devout Christian working as a registrar refused to conduct same-sex civil partnership ceremonies as she considered them to be contrary to her religious beliefs. Her successful legal action has set the precedent that religious beliefs supersede the rights of lesbians and gays in the workplace. " While you are correct that lesbians and gays have rights, the article states that: ". .. registrars in Islington effectively worked on a freelance basis and could swap with each other to avoid same-sex ceremonies. .. " So she could have swapped with someone else to conduct the ceremony. Religion, just like ethnicity, is a part of who we are as individuals. Those who choose to follow a certain religion shouldn't be harassed in order to do something that their job requires, and at any rate, they should know what that job entails beforehand and discuss that with their employer. Religion is important to those that choose to follow it, and an individual has just as much the right to practice their religion freely just as much as lesbians and gays have rights. An employer, I understand, has to make a profit. They have to keep their business running. But they should also be willing to accomodate religions. "Similarly, one of the female debaters on this site could be offered a job as a porn actress and turn up on the set and say tell the director that she would happy to do the job but had suddenly decided to become a devout follower of Islam and so would not be able to remove her burqa, or indeed any item of clothing and there could certainly be no intimate physical contact as this would be contrary to her religious beliefs! " This is null and void, considering someone who is Islam obviously would not take a job as a porn star in the first place! Also, you can't just SUDDENLY become Islam, it takes time and learning. You would have had to had preconceived thoughts about it before hand, in which case, you wouldn't take the job. "It's just like a student getting a Saturday job in a pork pie factory and telling the boss on the first day that he is very happy to do the job of a pork pie maker but because he had recently chosen to become an ultra-orthodox Jew he would not be able to deal with any pork products and, as Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, he wouldn't actually be able to do any work of any description! " Again, to become a Jew takes time, as you must learn everything about the religion. And you would have to have preconceived thoughts of becoming a Jew, in which case, you obviously would not take a job that was on the Jewish Sabbath. "It seems to me that the judges in the aforementioned court cases were a couple of frothing nut jobs and I therefore affirm that, because religion is a matter of personal choice, companies should not be legally obliged to accommodate their employees' religious practices or beliefs. " To this you could argue that being gay is a personal choice, so employers should not be legally obligated to accommodate their lifestyle. Like in the first case you mentioned. Religion is the staple of most American homes, it means everything to them and they are willing to do anything for it. For example, I refuse to work on Sundays because of my faith. If it came down to working on Sundays or loosing my job, then I would loose my job. But my boss accommodates to my request because it's only one day out of the week. My point in this is that a person should not have to choose between their faith and their job. It would be the same as asking a gay man to choose between his partner and his job. That's not right either, wouldn't you agree?