Posted on 08/22/2014 5:18:22 AM PDT by xzins
A New York couple faces thousands of dollars in fines for declining to rent out their family farm for a same-sex wedding celebration.
The New York State Division of Human Rights fined Cynthia and Robert Gifford $13,000 for declining a request from a lesbian couple to rent the family barn for their ceremony.
The Giffords have owned and operated Liberty Ridge Farm in for over 25 years. They believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
Like many small farm families, they often open up their home to host public events, including weddings.
In addition to the fines, the family has been told to implement "re-education" classes for their staff.
Should the government be in the business of "re-educating" citizens to change their moral beliefs? Ryan Anderson, with the Heritage Foundation, talks about this and more.
It’s difficult to tell from the story. Did the state actually use the term “re-education”? If so, the story can be used as a bat to whack every liberal you know over the head with.
So did the newly weds want the hoedown throwdown or the hoot nancy package?
full apology Xzins for misspelling your nick
There are obstacles to some of us leaving the area (mortgages, families, etc.); the problem for the northeast is that young Anglos refuse to be hindered by these things and are leaving in droves.
My guess is that they have to go to classes that teach them sensitivity to others and the law as defined by liberals.
My guess is that the couple sees it as ‘re-education’....which it is.
They would dispute any required training as an effort to make them think ‘rightly’ instead of ‘wrongly’.
But yeah, I understand.
No problem. XZ on the keyboard isn’t an easy combo. :>)
ping
The question on that is whether they take a tax writeoff for using their home as a business.
Thats where it starts to get complicated. Start receiving government benefits of some sort and you increase the potential for the government to start ordering you around.
I’d tell this family to do the same thing I think the bakers and photographers are doing: agree to hold the wedding but make it clear that part of the proceeds will be donated to a Christian charity that provides gay conversion therapy.
Heck, they might be able to even put up an advertisement billboard for such a charity thats not within the physical location covered by the contract but IS visible to the wedding goers.
isn’t that spelled reejuhmakated?
:>)
Sorry, not “are” doing but “should be” doing in my above.
The rise of Tyranny is manifest. When the people are denied their property Rights by the queer Nation Divorced from God The State has disrespected it’s own foundations. This is the Tyranny one should expect from the Queer nation.It is NOT Just neither is it acceptable.
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A family farm is, throughout the history of this nation, home first. You ask a farmboy in the army where he’s going on leave, he simply says “Home.” He doesn’t say “to the family business.”
I’m sure lawyers would rip into that, but if Sally makes wedding cakes out of her home, then she has ‘home’ as the basis of her sales. And HOME is a basic premise of our Christian faith.
For the farm, though, I’d encourage them to make their farm a Christian outreach catering to religious weddings and accessible by those who agree to a set of religious principles as part of their use of the facility. That way it is never a public accommodation.
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They certainly are re-education classes, I was just interested to see if the Left was that willing to pull off their mask and call it what it is.
As with the Hobby Lobby case, I don’t even get to the question of religion or personal beliefs before I have a problem with this. A business should have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, or even no reason. Their penalty is the lost business, and whatever public opinion hit they take for it. The fact that people are targeted for this stuff just because they are Christians only makes it worse.
Our thoughts on this are identical. Good post, cdcdawg
Let them try and collect it. This family should put a sign in their yard “Any personnel from NYDHR caught on this property will be deemed a direct and immediate threat and will be treated as such.”
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