Farmer, barred from market for same sex marriage views, sues city

American Thinker ^ | 06/03/2017 | Rick Moran

[SeekAndFind]

An orchard near East Lansing, MI is suing the city because they've been barred from a Farmers Market due to their religious views on same sex marriage.

There are several issues that make this case unique. For one, the orchard does not discriminate in selling products in East Lansing to anyone, even same sex couples. The city has accused them of discriminating against gays on their private property because the owner refuses to host same sex marriages at the orchard in Charlotte, MI.

Secondly, in order to bar the orchard from selling at the market, the city passed a non-discrimination ordinance. The ordinance doesn't appear to affect any other business at the market. It was aimed specifically at one business.

The owner of the orchard, Stephen Tennes, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his religious freedoms are being violated by the ban. 

The State News:

“Contrary to this policy and the constitutionally protected rights of all couples, The Country Mill has advertised that their business practice is to prohibit same-sex couples from holding weddings at their orchard in Charlotte, MI,” the city statement read. “Their business practices violate the City of East Lansing’s long-standing ordinance that protects sexual orientation as well as the Supreme Court’s ruling that grants the right for same-sex couples to be married.”

Tennes, a Roman Catholic, shared his belief that marriage is solely between a man and a woman in a Facebook post on Aug. 24, 2016, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit further alleges the city, upon finding the post, immediately took action to remove The Country Mill from the Farmer’s Market.

“First, City officials pressured Country Mill to leave the Market,

[raybbr]

It’s not his religious freedoms that are being attacked it’s his personal freedoms that they are targeting.

[ealgeone]

And the homosexuals told us they only wanted to be left alone to do what they wanted in their bedrooms.

[Signalman]

Conservatives are fighting back.
It’s about time.

[Timpanagos1]

I hope Tennes has two separate companies, one for the produce and one for the wedding venue. If they are one and the same, he will have a tougher time explaining his case. If they are separate, the city has no case.

[alloysteel]

Thoughtcrime has become a very real legal concept, that is being applied to anyone who resists the indoctrination.

No mercy, no appeal, no justice.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $690.00 to 84.00%

[tuffydoodle]

Hearing one man refer to another man as his “husband” gives me such a visceral sense of revulsion. All they want to do is make a mockery of the institution of holy matrimony and shove their perversions in all decent people’s faces.

[AndyTheBear]

Let me get the leftist hive thinking straight.

If his religious beliefs called for the killing of all homosexuals and either the death or subjugation of all non-believers, and if there was an ongoing history of people from his home town that had a 14 century history of doing just that and attacking innocent people to slaughter them based on these tenets, than to show him any disrespect or insult or offend him in anyway that there was any defect in his religious views would be vulgar, bigoted, and even fascist or nazi-like behavior.

BUT, since his religion is mostly about love and respect for all people, and maintains gay unions are not really marriages, so although he will not tell people how to live their lives and will treat everyone with respect he does not want to participate in hosting a gay wedding because he thinks it is a sham by its nature...he must be shunned and legally barred form participating in the Farmer's market.

[ssaftler]

The ordinance doesn't appear to affect any other business at the market. It was aimed specifically at one business.

What if the farmer was to bar ALL weddings on his (assumed) private property? That wouldn't be discrimination, would it? Then again, a wedding in an apple orchard? Seems a bit odd, but...

[Balding_Eagle]

The farmers hurdle is the judge, as the city has no case in any event.

As with all of these cases in which the government unconstitutionally interferes with a persons right to discriminate, it is the judge who issues an illegal ruling.

One company? Two? Thirty? A corrupt judge can subvert all of that.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Hope he bankrupts the city!

[Vaduz]

No such thing as sex marriage it’s just wishful thinking.

[Timpanagos1]

They will be far better situated if it is two different LLC’s.

In many cases, people (companies) do not have the right to discriminate, as there are laws, state, local and federal that prohibit some forms of discrimination.

The farming family has a few ways to beat this case. Setting up two companies would shield them or they could lease the farm to a church at times when a wedding will take place.

[Timpanagos1]

“No such thing as sex marriage it’s just wishful thinking.”

Many couple learn that lesson around three years into marriage or after the kids are born.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

He got out of the wedding business.

[Cboldt]

BUMP to your pithy and accurate observation on “the state of the law.”

[Impala64ssa]

And the homosexuals told us they only wanted to be left alone to do what they wanted in their bedrooms.
Exactly. Many LGBT-ers do have a sense of fairness and intellectual honesty to realize the injustice of these warped, twisted interpretations of civil rights laws. No reasonable person would demand that a Black owned bakery make a wedding cake for a White supremacist couple. Nor would a Jewish owned deli be forced to accommodate any neo nazi reception. Besides, from a practical point, for every caterer, baker, florist, photgrapher, limo driver, etc. who have deep seated religious beliefs preventing them from involving themselves in gay weddings, there's many others willing to fill that niche.

[Cboldt]

-- The farming family has a few ways to beat this case. --

The counterpoint was that the judge can pierce any of these "shield" devices if he or she is so inclined. There is no legal requirement that the rationale hold water.

[Timpanagos1]

Yes the judge could, but it makes it a step more difficult.

Lease portion of the farm to a church for days they plan to have weddings.