Public Lecture: Masterpiece Cakeshop, Sexual-Orientation Discrimination, and the Metaphysics of Cakes

Tuesday, February 5, 2019 7:00 pm - 7:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

John Corvino
Please join us for a public lecture by Dr. John Corvino, the Brian Rudrick Visiting Scholar in Philosophy. Corvino is Dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College and a Professor of Philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is known for combining logical precision with sensitivity and humour to build bridges in the culture wars.

All are welcome to the reception after the talk.

Contact tcjcarte@uwaterloo.ca to register.

Abstract

In June 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favour of Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker who refused to create a cake for a same-sex wedding reception despite a state law prohibiting sexual-orientation discrimination. In the concurring opinions, especially those of Justices Kagan and Gorsuch, there is a lively debate about what counts as denying "the same cake" to different customers. In this talk I explore that question against the background of sexual-orientation discrimination in the United States and elsewhere.

Bio

John Corvino, Ph.D., is the author or co-author of several books, including Debating Same-Sex Marriage (with Maggie Gallagher; 2012), What’s Wrong with Homosexuality? (2013), and, most recently, Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination (with Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis; 2017), all from Oxford University Press.

He has appeared on CNN, ABC, FOX, MSNBC, CSPAN, and other TV and radio networks. Until 2011, his column “The Gay Moralist” ran weekly at 365gay.com; he has also contributed to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Detroit Free Press, the Advocate, the Huffington Post, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, and Commonweal, as well as various academic anthologies and journals.

Corvino is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2004 Spirit of Detroit Award from the Detroit City Council, a 2012 Distinguished Professor of the Year Award from the Presidents’ Council of the State Universities of Michigan, and the 2017 inaugural Community Hero Award from Affirmations LGBTQ Community Center. In the last 25 years he has spoken at over 250 campuses on issues of sexuality, ethics, and marriage. His online videos have received over two million views.

John Corvino video playlist