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Justin Toth
John Kubler
English 114A
25 September 2014
Cultural Diversity In Our Society
Throughout history, cultural diversity has helped us in numerous ways. For example,
giving us knowledge about other ethnicities such as learning about new religions, foods and
customs. Cultural diversity refers to group that shares common values and views on life. If one
moves to a different community he or she can acquire the culture that lies with in. For example,
I lived in Chicago my entire life until I moved to California this year and I had to adapt to the
culture on the west coast. It also helps to know some things about other cultures to fit in better.
Our world is very diverse now; there are a million different cultures. Likewise my views may be
different to a kid that lives in another part of the world with a different religion and customs.
With cultural diversity also brings up our religious diversity. America has the largest amount of
religious and cultural diversity in the world. This is important to us because it makes us who we
are today. Cultural diversity gives us views on life, the humor we share, our values, and hope.
Even though cultural diversity plays a main role in our society, I believe it puts the world in a
negative direction due to the sexual orientation discrimination and running companies based on
conflicting religious views; ending disputes between different religions with cultural diversity,
we will achieve a more peaceful world.
A main topic that is occurring in society is sexual orientation discrimination, mainly in
the workplace. Sexual orientation discrimination includes being treated differently because of
your sexual orientation, whether you are lesbian, gay, transgender or heterosexual. We tend to
find a lot of discrimination in the workplace. Most of the cases with sexual orientation

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discrimination occur because of a business owner practicing a religion against the LGBT. In
regards to this I bring up the case between Elane Photography and Vanessa Willock. Elane
Photography is a company that takes photographs for special events such as weddings in this
case. Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin, owners of Elane Photography, are avid Christian believers.
This meant that they were against the marriage of LGBT. Vanessa Willock and her partner
decided to have Elane Photography take pictures at their wedding but Elaine then politely denied
them. Then the couple sued Elane Photography because of the discrimination against them.
During the trial, Justice Richard Bosson wrote against Elane Photography saying the sense of
respect we owe others, whether or not we believe as they do . . . it is the price of citizenship
(Lorrence 1). To be a citizen in our society it is beneficial to respect others. It is also advised
that this is the price you pay to be a citizen and it is not that hard to follow by. In the court case,
Elane Photography makes an appalling statement when they say, if its employees spend time
taking and editing photographs of same-sex weddings, they have less time to spend doing their
preferred work of photographing opposite-sex weddings (Elane Photography court case 17).
When I read this comment I was in complete shock because it is scary to think there are people
out there with this type of mindset. Also, that they do not have time to take same-sex marriage
photographs because they have to cater their opposite-sex weddings. This goes to show that
sexual orientation discrimination is a growing problem in our world and it is getting even worse.
Additionally, the case of Barronelle Stutzman is very similar to the Elane Photography
case. Barronelle Stutzman is the proud owner of Arlenes Flower Shop. She has been in the
flower business for over 37 years working harder than ever. During her 37 years of work, she
met a man named Robert Ingersoll. The first time they met they clicked because they had a
substantial amount of similarities including creativity. Throughout their decade friendship,
Ingersoll spent a great deal of money in the flower shop. Because same-sex marriage was now

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legal in the state of Washington, Ingersoll decided to marry his partner. Since Stutzman and
Ingersoll were so close, its obvious that he would want her to provide flowers for his wedding.
When Ingersoll asked Stutzman if she would make the flowers, she kindly turned him down.
Just like in the Elane Photography case, Stutzman was also an avid follower of the Christian
faith. She knew throughout the friendship that he was in a same-sex relationship and would
make flowers for their anniversaries and other special occasions. Stutzman told him that she
could not do a same-sex marriage because it was against her faith for two same-sex people to get
married. The couple decided to sue her after this because of the discrimination that took place.
They sued her for her business but also on a personal level. There is a law that protects the
couple however, and the law is called the Landmark Anderson-Murray Antidiscrimination
Law. The law states that it prohibits businesses from refusing to serve based on their sexual
orientation (New York Daily Times). Stutzman is breaking the law by not giving them business.
This is another good reason why discrimination needs to come to an end.
Another reason why cultural diversity tends to be unacceptable is because of the fact that
companies base the workplace on their own beliefs. In the Hobby Lobby case it involves
religion. Hobby Lobby is a well-known franchise that sells different kinds of crafts. The Green
family owns this establishment and practices their Christian faith in the workplace. The Green
family is against the idea of using contraceptives to kill the human egg after its been fertilized.
The family has no objection to the other 16 FDA-approved methods of birth control (Hobby
Lobby court case 14). Even though they allow 16 other forms of contraceptives, female workers
should be able to receive the other four that you take after you are pregnant. The Green family
thinks that letting their female employees take the contraceptives means they will be considered
to be killing the baby. But it is simple because they are just providing the insurance for the
female employees. The employees then get to make the decision on their own however they see

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fit. I think that running a for-profit company based on religious views should never happen
because of the negative situations that come out of it.
My last point involves the book Persepolis and its negative cultural diversity. Persepolis
is a book about a girl called Marjane. The story talks about her life from when she was six to
fourteen years old. Marjane attends a school that is only girls and has to wear a veil. During this
time there is a lot of political and religious strife in Iran. Marjane and her family were a religious
family and also support many revolutions. She was also interested in social activism at a young
age and wanted to change things in her society so people did not have to suffer anymore. Iran is
not too fond of change and also is not keen on freedom. The governments cultural revolved
around confinement. For example, Marjane says, We didn't really like to wear the veil,
especially since we didn't understand why we had to (Satrapi 3). The government did this
because they had the power to do what ever they pleased but more importantly because they
wanted to limit the freedom the people had. By making the people wear veils people could not
express themselves in the way they dress themselves. The wearing of the veils started disputes
between people that were for the veil and the people that were against it and wanted freedom.
Another negative of cultural diversity is in the story involving a fire that started in a movie
theatre. The movie theatre was filled with people and locked just before the fire started and [the
police] forbade people to rescue those locked inside (Satrapi 14). The government officials are
trying to kill innocent people and then telling people they are not allowed to rescue them. The
fire department during this fire does not show up for forty minutes. This goes to show that they
do not care what happens to their citizens because of their culture. The rest of the story is filled
with different examples on why cultural diversity is negative and how much religion has an
impact on societies.

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In our world there is a lot of sexual orientation discrimination and disputes involving
religion. For example, in the Elane Photography case and in the Barronelle Stutzman case. Both
of these cases show that discrimination happens all around us. Also, these cases show that when
owners of companies base their religion in the workplace it turns out to be a negative influence
against people and sometimes even discriminating just like in these two cases. In regards to this,
the Hobby Lobby case is a great example of how basing your workplace off of the beliefs you
hold, can be negative. Then comes the book Persepolis that shows the impact a government can
have on societies based on their cultural. All in all cultural diversity has negative effects on our
society and if we can change this, it would be beneficial too us because then we can live in peace
without discrimination or disputes over religion.

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Works Cited
"Colorado Baker Must Make Cakes for Gay Weddings, Panel Rules." New York Daily News, 30
May 2014. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.
Lorence, Jordan. "Supreme Court Turns Down Elane Photography Case." National Review
Online. N.p., 07 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2003. Print.
Supreme Court Decision for Hobby Lobby case, PDF.
The Elane Photography case court decision, PDF.