the arts have to have free speech....and the 3 bakers i personally know who make wedding cakes are artists
Your appreciation of their work changes nothing.
First, those bakeries are undoubtedly acting as public accommodations, which means that as soon as the opened their door to the public, they should have known that in their state they are subject to anti-discrimination laws. That may well mean making cakes for people whose views do not match their own.
Second, claiming religious exemptions is not valid. We already have examples of people citing religious beliefs to defend other forms of discrimination, notably racial discrimination. It didn't work then, and there is no reason it should work now.
Third, the state is not the one telling the bakers what to "express," it is only telling the bakers that as public accommodations they cannot discriminate unlawfully against gays. Their job is to express what their customers ask them to express, not express their own opinions through their work.
The bakers
can put up signs in their establishments stating their own views, but cannot refuse service when those views are discriminatory (or signs refusing service on that basis).
Thus: If they are going to make wedding cakes, then they have to make wedding cakes, regardless of their own personal religious views or the views of their customers. They can still refuse based on non-discriminatory and universally applied standards ("no shirt, no shoes, no service") but not based on standards that violate the law ("no blacks, no Irish").
For more information:
http://www.nmcompcomm.us/nmcases/nmsc/slips/SC33,687.pdf
same as any artist should have the right to turn down any commission work
Artists can refuse commissions -- but, if they are operating as a public accommodation, they cannot refuse on the basis of an unlawful discrimination.
E.g. they can refuse to take a commission because the prospective customer is a PITA. They can't refuse it solely because the customer is gay, or Hispanic, or male.
