Normally it can be quiet a coup to design a dress for the US First Lady, but in the weeks leading up to the inauguration designer Sophie Theallet, who had previously dress Michelle Obama asked her fellow designers to boycott the next First Lady, Melania Trump. Theallet issued a open letter on Twitter in which she said:
I will not participate in dressing or associating in any way with the next First Lady. The rhetoric of racism, sexism, and xenophobia unleashed by her husband’s presidential campaign are incompatible with the shared values we live by. I encourage my fellow designers to do the same.
Other designers, including Marc Jacobs joined her boycott.
Most media outlets reported these boycotts either without commentary, or with a generally positive slant. And any who believe in freedom of conscience should support their right to deny their services for this political event. They oppose Trump, and so they don’t want to have any role in making him, or his wife, look good.
Finally, something we can agree on – no one should be forced against their conscience to participate in something they think is evil. But now the Left has to remember to treat others as it wants to be treated. If designers shouldn’t be forced into into participating in Donald Trump’s inauguration, then Christian bakers shouldn’t have to violate their consciences, and participate in same-sex weddings they oppose.
