July 21, 2015 4:00PM 

# Poll: 51% Say Business Owners Should Serve Same-Sex Couples, but 59% Say Wedding Businesses Should Be Allowed to Decline 

By [Emily Ekins](https://www.cato.org/people/emily-ekins) 

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A recent [AP/​GfK poll finds](http://ap-gfkpoll.com/featured/findings-from-our-latest-poll-22) a slim majority (51%) of Americans say businesses with religious objections should be required to serve same-sex couples. Forty-six percent (46%) say these business owners should be allowed to refuse service. However, for business owners specifically offering wedding-related services, Americans say these particular businesses “should be allowed to refuse service” by a margin of 59% to 39%.

These results correspond with the nuanced argument Cato scholar Roger Pilon [recently made](http://www.wsj.com/articles/whatever-happened-to-religious-freedom-1436827114) in the *Wall Street Journal*. Pilon explains that businesses open to the public ought to serve everyone; however, business owners with religious objections (who are not a monopoly) should not be forced to participate in the creative act of planning and participating in the wedding of a same-sex couple. Referring to two couples who recently were heavily fined for declining to provide services for same-sex weddings, he [writes:](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/whatever-happened-religious-freedom)

> *“Because they represent their businesses as open to the public, the Kleins and Giffords shouldn’t be able to deny entrance and normal service to gay customers… But it is a step further—and an important one—to force religious business owners to participate in a same-sex wedding, to force them to engage in the creative act of planning the event, baking a special-order cake for it, photographing it, and so on.”*

Americans seem inclined to support this nuanced view that businesses should serve all customers regardless of sexual orientation, religion, race, gender, income, national origin, etc.—*but* that wedding-related businesses requiring owners’ direct participation in the wedding should not be forced to provide service against the owners’ religious beliefs.

Just because the public thinks wedding-related business owners ought not be forced to serve same-sex couples doesn’t mean the public opposes same-sex marriage. Polls show ([here](http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll06242015.pdf), [here](http://www.gallup.com/poll/117328/marriage.aspx)) that in advance of June’s [Supreme Court ruling](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html), roughly [6 in 10 Americans supported](http://www.gallup.com/poll/117328/marriage.aspx) legalizing marriage for same-sex couples.

Taken together, these polls suggest that a sizeable share of Americans think the state should not prohibit same-sex couples from getting married *and* that the state should not require wedding-related business owners with religious objections to provide services against their will.

##### Related Tags 

[Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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