![wedding cake with gay pride colors wedding cake with gay pride colors](https://cdn001.cakecentral.com/gallery/2016/07/900_pride-cake-979637Y13FQ.jpg)
![wedding cake with gay pride colors wedding cake with gay pride colors](https://parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/rainbow-layer-cake-ftr.jpg)
… As governmental pressure toward unity becomes greater, so strife becomes more bitter as to whose unity it shall be. "Struggles to coerce uniformity of sentiment in support of some end thought essential to their time and country have been waged by many good as well as by evil men. The Barnette court’s reasoning is worth quoting at length: The court explicitly rejected the need to coerce uniformity to achieve national unity. In another case involving Jehovah’s Witness schoolchildren and the American flag, the court said such compelled expression violates the First Amendment. Barnette, it explicitly reversed itself, holding that it is unconstitutional to compel speech inconsistent with the speaker’s religious beliefs. Three years later the Supreme Court did something it rarely does. Numerous states enacted laws requiring children to salute the flag and scores of Jehovah’s Witness schoolchildren were expelled from school. Some small-town sheriffs arrested Jehovah’s Witnesses for provoking violence or for their own protection, rather than arresting the actual wrongdoers. Commentators have described what followed as “open season” on Jehovah’s Witnesses, as vigilante groups burned Kingdom Halls, vandalized homes and physically assaulted believers, all in the name of patriotism. The court’s decision triggered the worst wave of religion-inspired violence in 20th century America.