A federal judge in the US has sided with a photographer who declines to shoot same-sex weddings.

U.S. District Judge, Justin Walker, ruled that a local Government anti-discrimination ordinance could not be used to penalize Chelsey Nelson for advertising on her website that she only photographs and blogs about opposite-sex ceremonies.

“America is wide enough for those who applaud same-sex marriage and those who refuse to,” Walker wrote in his opinion finding in favor of Nelson. “The Constitution does not require a choice between gay rights and freedom of speech. It demands both.”

Quoting the majority opinion from the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized marriage equality, the 38-year-old Walker added: “Just as gay and lesbian Americans ‘cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth,’ neither can Americans ‘with a deep faith that requires them to do things passing legislative majorities might find unseemly or uncouth.’”

Because art is a form of speech, Nelson cannot be compelled to photograph same-sex weddings in violation of her personal religious or political principles, Walker added. While photography is wordless, “so too is refusing to salute the flag or marching in a parade, both of which the Supreme Court has said are protected forms of speech.”