Posted on 06/05/2012 7:21:34 AM PDT by marshmallow
The New Mexico Court of Appeals has ruled that it is illegal for a photography business owned by Christians to refuse to photograph a same-sex wedding ceremony—even though New Mexico law does not permit same-sex marriage.
The court based its judgment on the text of the New Mexico Human Rights Act (NMHRA), which makes it illegal “any person in any public accommodation to make a distinction, directly or indirectly, in offering or refusing to offer its services . . . to any person because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, spousal affiliation or physical or mental handicap.”
“Elane Photography’s owners are Christians who believe that marriage is a sacred union of one man and one woman,” the court noted in its opinion. “Elane Photography denied Willock’s request to photograph the ceremony based upon its policy of refusing to photograph images that convey the message that marriage can be defined to include combinations of people other than the union of one man and one woman … They also believe that photography is an artistically expressive form of communication and photographing a same-sex commitment ceremony would disobey God and the teachings of the Bible by communicating a message contrary to their religious and personal beliefs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicculture.org ...
Next step is churches who refuse to do ‘gay marriage’ ceremonies lose their IRS tax exempt status.
That’s on the way soon.
Any business should be allowed to refuse service to anyone for any reason. PERIOD.
Government is now telling private business what to do.
We’ve crossed the Rubicon, folks.
CW-II is coming.
Sooner or later, someone has to tell the court to shove it up its liberal smelly Obama.
Sooner would be better than later.
Mass civil disobedience is right around the corner. These judicial activists are crapping in their own nests.
Does this mean if someone wanted to force a Christian photographer to shoot pornography, they could? Also, can the photographers do a bad job on the photos and say they will give all the money they receive for it to Focus on the Family or some other conservative organization the lesbonazis hate?
It’s already started. The other side hasn’t fired on Ft Sumter yet.
They have to take photos, nothing said about them being good.
Somewhere, a certain “Tree Needs Refreshing”...
It was considered more important to derail racial prejudice than to respect the right of freedom of association (or non-association). Now we’re where we are today, with people forced to associate or not, do business or not, based on whatever the government tells them they should do today.
Government has been doing it for decades. It began in the civil rights era when racist business owners were forced to serve blacks.
Personally I think those business owners should be able to make that decision for themselves. Smart business owners care only about the color of their customer’s money. (Capitalism is the worlds most non biased economic system)
Here in Michigan, bar owners were forced to ban smoking in their businesses. If I were a bar owner and wanted my business to be non smoking, I would have done so and promoted it to non smokers.
What about blacks? Can you refuse services because you just don’t like them? You said anyone for any reason after all
They just did.
“Here are your beautiful photos, now pay me $20,000 please. Thank you.”
A photography business is a “public accomodation?”
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