Columnist Jonah Goldberg's recent commentary about Indiana's Religious Freedom and Restoration Act missed the point ("How do 'religious freedom' acts encourage discrimination?" April 3).
He says that "the war for gay rights has been won, and that's basically fine by me." But the "war for gay rights" is not a war with victors and losers. It is a political conversation having to do with the right to equal treatment for a minority — gays in this case — versus the rights of the majority.
If Mr. Goldberg thinks it's silly to force an Indiana pizza parlor to cater a gay wedding, he must also defend a café owner when he refuses service to a gay person. I don't see a substantive difference, although I admit there may be legal ones.
The recent Supreme Court decision that ended federal oversight of voter rights in some states has resulted in some erosion of equal access to the ballot box. The conversation continues.
Mr. Goldberg says that the "left's agenda" is a country where we can celebrate freedom only "as instructed."
I'm not enough of a scholar to debate the right to recognize versus the right to be recognized. But I feel "instruction" is as much a part of the political right's agenda as it is of the left.
Poking fun and devaluing one another's ideas and character has become a national sport it seems.
Cy Fishburn, Baltimore