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Notes -
Not OP, but I think there's a difference between the freedom to provide a given service or not, and the freedom to refuse service to particular customers. Much as it should be clubs' choice whether they put on minstrel shows or drag shows, it should be a bakery's choice whether or not they want to sell rainbow-colored pride cakes. But the proper comparison for whether the bakery can refuse to sell a standard wedding cake to a pair of gay fiancés isn't that: it's whether the minstrel club can bar black people, or the gay club bar straight people, from entry.
Now you might argue that all of these fall under freedom-of-association, and I can certainly respect freedom-of-association absolutism as far as it goes. But they still seem like two easily-distinguished subcategories where I don't think you need to be biased in any specific direction to support one and not the other.
But of course if they want to bar people with incorrect political views, freedom-of-association is right back on the table.
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It’s a fuzzy line.
What if the person isn’t baking a cake but officiating weddings, should they be forced to accommodate gay ones as long as they follow the same script as straight ones?
On the other hand, the person baking cakes won’t know whether their clients are gay without obnoxious vetting which would hurt their business. A man and woman can walk into the store and order a cake, then give it to their gay friends.
I believe freedom of association should work like that: a seller can refuse “service”, but once they provide it, can’t restrict the buyer or force them to retract.
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