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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Vermont Inn Denies Discriminating Against Same-Sex Wedding Reception

The owners of an inn that refused to host a same-sex wedding reception say they have no policy to discriminate against gay couples.

In a court filing Tuesday, a lawyer for Wildflower Inn owners Jim and Mary O'Reilly said that they were never told about the lesbian couple's request to hold their wedding reception and that the inn's meeting and events director wasn't authorized to reject requests from same-sex couples.

The lesbian couple, Kate Baker and Ming Linsley, of New York, sued the inn last month, saying it violated anti-discrimination statutes by refusing to host the event because they're gay.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do not worry about these mental disadvantage gays b/c AIDS will take them out soon enough.

Drew said...

We do not, however, feel that we can offer our personal services wholeheartedly to celebrate the marriage between same-sex couples because it goes against everything that we as Catholics believe in."

Do they refuse second (third etc) marriages too? Catholic church doesn't believe in divorce/remarriage.

Anonymous said...

Gay people need to respect other opinions! The world as we know it is going to HELL!

Anonymous said...

The distinction here is between a public accommodation and a personal service. According the article, the Wildflower Inn doesn't discriminate in overnight accommodations, but they do not want to perform the personal services involved in preparation and execution of a wedding reception.

As a gay man, I do not believe that it serves the interests of society or the constitution to force people to use their private property in a way which is offensive to them, and I certainly do not approve of forcing people engaging in private business to perform services they do not wish to perform as such is a form of slavery.

Besides, if it weren't for discrimination then it would be really hard to open and maintain a gay bar or resort. At the point at which straights outnumbered the gay people, it would cease to be the business you intended. That's not a legitimate aim of government.

Anonymous said...

10:35- that's really mature.

Anonymous said...

10:54 was me. I forgot to sign it. - David Hearne

11:14 poster - Grow up.

Anonymous said...

10:35 and 11:45, as a couple of others have already said, you two have a lot of growing up--and learning--to do! 10:54, very well written!