Posted on 12/26/2012 5:30:12 PM PST by Pinkbell
An Annapolis company whose old-fashioned trolleys are iconic in the city's wedding scene has abandoned the nuptial industry rather than serve same-sex couples.
The owner of Discover Annapolis Tours said he decided to walk away from $50,000 in annual revenue instead of compromising his Christian convictions when same-sex marriages become legal in Maryland in less than a week. And he has urged prospective clients to lobby state lawmakers for a religious exemption for wedding vendors.
While most wedding businesses across the country embraced the chance to serve same-sex couples, a small minority has struggled to balance religious beliefs against business interests.
Wedding vendors elsewhere who refused to accommodate same-sex couples have faced discrimination lawsuits — and lost. Legal experts said Discover Annapolis Tours sidesteps legal trouble by avoiding all weddings.
"If they're providing services to the public, they can't discriminate who they provide their services to," said Glendora Hughes, general counsel for the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. The commission enforces public accommodation laws that prohibit businesses from discriminating on the basis of race, sexual orientation and other characteristics.
The trolley company's decision, publicized by a straight groom offended by what he called "repressive bigotry," offers a snapshot of a local business navigating a new landscape in Maryland's wedding industry, and leaving it behind for a competitor to swoop in.
The head of the Maryland Wedding Professionals Association said the trolley company is the second vendor to refuse business over the state's same-sex marriage law, which voters upheld in November. The Maryland clergyman who led opposition to same-sex marriage called the trolley company's choice to abandon profits on principle "gutsy" and predicted that more businesses would quietly follow suit.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
I also want to mention Catholic Chartities being forced to shut down their adoption programs in Massachusetts because they only believed in adopting to heterosexual couples. The whole article is a good read, and it is full of quotes of liberals supporting this law and being glad he shut his wedding business down because he is a "bigot". Liberals are using things like homosexual marriage and the healthcare mandate as tools to push Christianity out of society.
I'm waiting for the day when they enforce a law calling the Bible hate speech. You'll be allowed to be Christian, but only if you follow the fuzz, sanitized version approved by liberals.
Ping!
I am sorry for this man who lost his legitimate business because of evil people with an agenda.
However, I give him credit for sticking to his Christian priniciples and trust the Lord will bless him for his decision.
If a State decides that two (or more) people can marry, if that is all that happened, I could live with that because I don’t have to approve, change my beliefs or what beliefs I pass on to my children.
However, once gays and their supporters have sufficient influence with a State to redefine marriage, they don’t stop there. They use the State to forbid me from acting on my morality and beliefs. In fact, the State in some cases forces me to accommodation in their practices.
If I have children in public school, the State will insist on teaching them that gay marriage is just as normal as the God’s marriage. You will be sanctioned as a parent if you attempt to remove your child from such indoctrination.
If you run a business that could provide services to the public, you will be sanctioned if you decline to treat gays as non-gays. For example, if you run a wedding photography business, you will be sanctioned if you decline to photograph a gay wedding. This has already happened in California and New Mexico [1].
You may lose control of your own property. [2]
In short, gays will demand that non-gays accept them as moral equals, which they are not and cannot be.
When the State says they are equal it is forbidden for a private citizen to dissent from that status. In doing so, they seek to force me to give them approval for something that I will never approve of. It is that last point that galls gays the most.
Curiously, when advocates of gay marriage are asked if their policy also would allow polygamy or polyandry, they recoil in horror and insist that it does not. However, logic demands that it does. I would ask how same-sex parents are going to react in the future when, for example, Utah public schools officials require that teachers instruct the children that LDS-related polygamy is just as “normal” as same-sex “marriage”.
The fact that this will be an issue will show yet again that gay “marriage” is not about marriage at all it is about forcing the rest of us to approve of repugnant sexual immorality, something that LDS polygamists never demanded.
[1] Refusing To Shoot Gay Marriage Is Discrimination, Says New Mexico Appeals Court
http://www.popphoto.com/news/2012/06/refusing-to-shoot-gay-marriage-discrimination-says-new-mexico-appeals-court
[2] Judge Rules Christian facility cannot ban same-sex civil union ceremony on its own premises
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/judge-rules-christian-facility-cannot-ban-same-sex-civil-union-ceremony-on
>>>While most wedding businesses across the country embraced the chance to serve same-sex couples...
Says who?
In a free country, people would be free to do business with whomever they wished. In a free country.
The govt does not belong in the marriage business. In this case, it’s persecuting those that refuse to service homosexual behavior. This is not the first instance of persecution and it won’t be the last.
I remember when Americans believed in the idea behind the First Amendment. When someone is compelled by law to either give up their religious beliefs or give up their business, America is no longer a free country. This act of evil by the far left disgusts me. It is precisely as revolting as the HHS mandate to pray for abortion for employees. The idea of another civil war worries me, but not as much as the idea of watching what used to be a free country continue down this path.
“I am sorry for this man who lost his legitimate business because of evil people with an agenda.
However, I give him credit for sticking to his Christian priniciples and trust the Lord will bless him for his decision.”
Exactly.
Chicka Filet....However you say it, should have done the same thing. Otherwise they are hypocrites
Yeah, but he knows he did the right thing. His conscience will stay clean because of it. I'm sure his friends, family, community and God will reward him for his good example.
How are they hypocrites? Do you even know what the impetus was for the controversy?
Chick-fil-a should stop selling chicken because they might sell to homos?
Yeah, but he knows he did the right thing. His conscience will stay clean because of it. I'm sure his friends, family, community and God will reward him for his good example.
At some point, doing the right thing will include no longer accepting that we forfeit our first amendment rights simply because we engage in a for-profit vocation.
Calling the Bible “hate speech” is what Communists states did and do. Can’t do that here without decimating the First Amendment.
There are some here who have no clue.
Hostile work environment for devout, Christian heterosexuals.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
The law that was used to break the hold of racial segregation is now being used for a trivial purpose, which is to make gays feel good.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Me, too.
But if this man only had $50k in revenues from weddings, surely his business has other product and service segments that can keep him afloat. Fifty thousand in revenue wouldn't pay one salary.
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