First it was “Hands Up.” Now it’s “I Can’t Breathe.”

“Several players on both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn Nets, including LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Kyrie Irving and Deron Williams, wore black ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirts during pregame warm-ups Monday, following in the footsteps of Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose who wore the same shirt in a game Saturday to show support for the family of Eric Garner.”

Somebody went to a print shop and had the T-shirts made for LeBron James and some of his teammates to wear to bring attention to the tragic death of Eric Garner. In each case, the T-shirt manufacturer and LeBron James and others were within their rights to make a public statement about their views on the death of Mr. Garner.

What if somebody wanted the same T-shirt printing company to make a shirt that said “Eric Garner Deserved to Die,” and the company refused?

Would the T-shirt printing company have been within its moral and legal rights to refuse such a request? I suspect that every person you asked would say “yes,” and they would be right.

So why is it a crime for some T-shirt companies to refuse to print T-shirts that support an ideology it disagrees with but not others? Because the government says so. The homosexual lobby has used the courts to force people to comply with their views on same-sex sexuality. Any business that does not comply will be severely punished. The livelihoods of the owners are being “choked” by oppressive laws and edicts.

Consider this from a “civil rights” commissioner that ruled “that a Kentucky T-shirt company that refused to print shirts for a gay pride parade is guilty of discrimination.” The commissioner ruled that its employees had to attend diversity training.

“Greg Munson of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission [October 7, 2014] that Hands on Originals, a T-shirt company based in Lexington, Kentucky, discriminated against the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington when it refused to print the shirts.”

While it’s OK for a T-shirt company to refuse to print shirts that read “Eric Garner Deserved to Die,” it’s not OK for a T-shirt company to refuse to print T-shirts “which advertised a gay pride festival.”

The owners of Hands on Originals should get some NBA players to wear T-shirts that read “My Business is Being Choked to Death.”

“Owners of Hands On Originals have appealed a decision by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Human Rights Commission that the company discriminated against the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington by refusing to print the group’s Lexington Pride Festival T-shirts in 2012.”

Hands On Originals is not the only company being persecuted by the homosexual lobby and the government officials that are in bed with them. Flower shops, bakeries, and wedding venues are also under assault.

They can’t run their businesses as they see fit because the government says they can’t. Where’s LeBron when you need him? They can’t breathe either.