At some point, we have to get down to defining what constitutes a principle and what constitutes violating a principle. These hate laws could not exist except that those who push them can't tell the difference between a strongly held spiritual principle and just something they don't want to do. I contend that baking a cake, arranging flowers, and delivering a cup of coffee to a customer's table are not principles. They are jobs, or activities associated with jobs.
A baker insists that baking a cake for a gay couple's wedding violates his principles. How can baking a cake be a violation of his principles? He bakes cakes every day. It doesn't matter who he bakes them for. The baker claims that it means he is participating in the couple's wedding, of which he disapproves. How can he make that claim? He is not at the wedding (in fact, the cake is not likely to be at the wedding itself either). He is not overseeing the vows, he did not participate in the couple's decision to marry, he is not issuing the license. He is baking a cake. Its purpose is to be eaten. By whom does not matter. Same with the florist, or the lunch counter worker who is serving a meal. Their services are simply that - services.
Some will argue that this line of reasoning could be used against the companies that manufacture drugs that wind up being used for the death penalty. There is a distinct difference. The baker bakes a cake, and the purpose of that cake is to be eaten. The cake is (hopefully) not a potentially lethal item that could cause great harm if misused. The drug manufacturer makes a drug whose purpose is NOT the taking of a life, but that drug is misused to kill. While the baker can't argue that the purpose of his cake is not to be eaten by gays, but only by straight people, the drug company can legitimately state that they will not sell their drugs for the purpose of being misused. While the wedding can happen with or without a cake, i.e., the cake does not cause the wedding, the death penalty cannot be brought about (at least not by lethal injection) without the lethal products to inject, and the drug causes the death. Thus, the baker of the cake is not a participant in bringing about the wedding, but the drug manufacture is a participant in bringing about the death. This is where not selling a drug to prisons is a matter of principle, where baking a cake is not a principle.
So what is the difference between a principle and simply being dogmatic? The dictionary defines principle as: "a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning." There is nothing here about baking a cake. If you are happy to do your job for 99% of the people who walk into your establishment, then there is no principle involved when you refuse to do it for the other 1%. And this does not just apply to LGBT. During the Jim Crow era, people claimed that baking a cake for people of a different race was against their religion. People claimed that baking a cake for mixed marriages was against their religion. Or for divorced people. Or divorced and remarried. Or Muslim.
Obviously, although my primary example here deals with weddings and cakes, it covers much more. It covers any time someone wants to withhold goods or services. What I think is happening is that some people have a discomfort or a hatred, or they just don't want to do something. By giving it the title of "principle," they try to make something ugly in themselves into something holy given to them by God. In so doing, they justify their hatred and mean spiritedness into something they can boast about and make them feel better about themselves. So, instead of having this ugly thing in their lives, they are "principled." Then, the more light that is shined on this dark piece of them, the more stubborn and self-righteous they become. There is also something of the pecking order in this - but it is especially ugly when one uses the idea of "principle" to convince oneself that one is better than others.
It is not easy to admit the dark sides of one's soul. It is not easy to be told we have to do something that makes us uncomfortable. But it can be enlightening. It would be interesting to ask the bakers if they really believe the world is a worse place because they go ahead and bake a cake.