A New Mexico appeals court has upheld a lower court verdict that a photography studio that refused to shoot a same-sex “wedding” on religious grounds is guilty of “sexual orientation discrimination” under state law.
Elaine Huguenin, co-owner of Elane photography, who informed the plaintiffs that she could not shoot their same-sex "commitment" ceremony.
According to the court’s verdict, the trouble began for Elane Photography when the company was contacted by lesbian Vanessa Willock asking if they could photograph a “commitment ceremony” for Willock and her “partner.” The company, owned by Christian couple Elaine and Jonathan Huguenin, responded stating that they only shoot traditional weddings, and do not do “same-sex weddings,” but thanked Willock for her interest.
The following day, Willock’s anonymous “partner” sent an email to Elane Photography stating that she was going to “marry,” without stating that the “marriage” would be between herself and a woman. She asked if the company could travel to the location of the event, and was told that it could.
The two emails would be used as proof that the Huguenins were discriminating against Willock in her suit against the company, and resulted in a judgment of $6,637.94 against the defendant.
Although the government of New Mexico does not recognize same-sex “marriage,” civil unions, or domestic partnerships for homosexuals, the court ruled that Elane Photography had engaged in illegal discrimination based on sexual preference under the New Mexico Human Rights Act (NMHRA).Once upon a time, we had this thing called freedom of conscience. It meant that if we thought doing a thing was wrong, no one felt they had to compel us to do it. Not even if they didn't agree with us about which things were right and which were wrong.
That was what America was founded on. In England, at one time people were required to attend the Anglican church, founded by Henry VIII because he wanted to divorce his wife, control the church, and take church property for his own use and that of his friends. People who went to a secret Catholic mass instead were sometimes executed. Non-conforming Protestants also found themselves likely to suffer martyrdom.
That's why even though America was a highly Christian nation from the start, the Founding Fathers made sure that no one kind of Christianity could rule over the others as the Anglican church had in England. That's why we protect the Amish, the Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, and many other people that we don't agree with theologically.
It's sad to see the Leftists trying to do away with freedom of conscience in order to promote their causes. Yes, it hurts people's feelings when a photographer won't photograph their gay wedding, or their nude Wiccan wedding, but the thing about hurt feelings is, you can get over it. Losing freedom, on the other hand, is forever.
That is just horrible. I can't imagine filing suit against somebody just because they didn't want my business for whatever reason, especially if they were polite about it.
ReplyDeleteI mean, if I called and asked them to photograph my child's church wedding and they said "No, we don't do Catholic weddings." I'd just go to the next name in the phone book. No biggie.
Personally, if I were having a same-sex wedding, I'd rather have a photographer that was friendly to same-sex weddings, who maybe even kind of specialized in them, just for the comfort of myself, my partner, and the guests. (Of course now that I'm Catholic I'm not planning on that.)
ReplyDeleteThis idea of forcing gay weddings down people's throats is going to backfire on the gay community since we are a minority. When the Leftists no longer need us for their political purposes, there are going to be a lot of painful moments....