Now in Vermont, soon to come to New York. Two Catholic Innkeepers are being sued for refusing to host a gay wedding reception.
A Vermont inn violated state anti-discrimination rules by refusing to host the wedding reception for two New York City women, the couple said in a lawsuit Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Vermont chapter on behalf of Kate Baker and Ming Linsley, said the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville turned away the couple last fall and that at least two other same-sex couples were also refused because of the inn’s owner has a “no-gay-reception policy.”
“When the Wildflower Inn told us last fall that they don’t host gay receptions, we were obviously saddened and shocked,” said Baker. “It was frustrating to be treated like lesser than the rest of the society, and we were also surprised that it happened in Vermont.”
Vermont has been a pioneer in gay rights, creating the concept of civil unions for same-sex couple in 2000. In 2009, it legalized gay marriage. Many of its tourism businesses actively market to gay clientele.
The inn’s owners, Jim and Mary O’Reilly, issued a statement saying they are devout Catholics who believe in the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.
Our religious liberty will be diminished as the gay rights agenda marches on. The useless conscience protections put in place in NY in order to pass the bill will not protect against the exact same thing from happening here.
They may not be forcing Catholic priests to marry gays yet because otherwise sympathetic people would turn against them were they to try. But trust me, five or ten years from now, that is exactly what they will be trying to do. My best guess is that states like NY and Vermont will stop recognizing the legal right to conduct marriages by any institution that refuses to go along. Church marriages would no longer be recognized. When that happens, many more people will choose to forgo a Church wedding altogether rather than get married twice. This is coming folks, this is coming.
July 20, 2011 at 7:55 pm
In the New York Post the other day, an spokesperson for Governor Cuomo's office said that NY DJs, wedding bands, etc, can be sued for declining to perform at a gay wedding. What if they already have a gig scheduled for that day? What if they're going to be out of town on the day requested? Why would you want someone performing at your wedding who fundamentally disagrees with your union and is only there because they were forced to be there under threat of lawsuit? If I was forced to do a job I found morally objectionable, I can guarantee that I would not give it my best effort (I might even deliberately do a bad job)!
July 20, 2011 at 8:01 pm
WOW! I tried to share this post of yours to a political page that I run at facebook and got a message that I could not post your piece because it had been reported as "offensive". I run a very much NON-PC page there where pretty much everything would offend somebody, I post a LOT of anti-Obama and anti-jihad things with links to very serious stuff, and haven't been stopped by facebook before, but THIS gets banned from being posted? What did you do to make facebook hate you, Patrick? CMR is very tame and mild compared to most of the places I post links from!
Indeed, "it begins". sigh
July 20, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Zilla,
I've encountered the same problem. You can bypass that block by simply copying and pasting the url to the post as a "link" on your FB page, instead of using the "share" button at the bottom of the post on this page.
July 20, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Well that would work for my personal profile, but this is for a "fan page" or "like page" that I run there. I posted the link in the comments section under a post explaining fb's censorship so my readers can find it. Thanks, though!
July 20, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Sin is rapant and everywhere. Babies being born out of wedlock, men and women committing adultery on each other. After gay marriage comes polygamy. And that's just the tip of the ice berg. We are practically contracepting ourselves out of existence. Not to mention aborting our own children. We are committing grave sins and feeling no shame for doing so.
I tell you, certain Catholics (you know who you are!) will have a lot of answering to do before our Lord if they don't repent. Remember the message of Fatima regarding Hell! Hell is real and it does exist. More than ever, we need Our Lady's intercession. Jesus will say on Judgment Day to those on the left, "Go away, I don't know you." The leaders in this Church are in need of repentance and until they do this, they will continue in scandals.
Our holy father warned us about things like this. I just wonder how many Catholics are actually getting this message! I personally think, that many bishops are blocking these messages. Many in the hierarchy need to do a better job in exposing these heretics who teach false gospels, claiming to be of God, when they're not. But, the mute since Vatican II continues, since then, it seems that many bishops are paralyzed in fear.
I think our leaders in the Church failed to purge evil from the beginning. Now, they have permeated pretty much everywhere. From the beginning Our God has instructed the Israelites to purge the evil from amongst them. Our Lord Jesus did the same, yet our leaders in disobedience to our Lord have not done so, that is why we are in so much trouble.
July 20, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Does this lawsuit have a snowball's chance in hell? I mean, is there some inalienable right to have your reception at the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, VT? I'm honestly wondering here, is there an innkeeper law on the books in Vermont that says that a private inn must provide its facilities to anyone who can pay? Or maybe such a law is the next thing coming?
July 20, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Why get married with the state at all? What benefits are there to "state unions" anymore? I would seriously consider just getting married where it mattered – the Church.
July 20, 2011 at 8:46 pm
I think it's no coincidence that if Vermont caters to the gay tourist community and there are plenty of Inns and venues offering such services to homosexuals, that these two women chose a location owned by a couple with the last name of O'Reilly!
When I hear a name like O'Reilly, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to think Irish Catholics!
-Lisa
July 20, 2011 at 9:52 pm
It is starting and led by a "Catholic" politician who expects us to go exactly by the law but wants to pick and choose what Catholic teachings he'll abide by. All while claiming to be Catholic.
As a church organist, I am going to have to give up playing for all churches except the Catholic Church. Even then I don't know how that will work out. I have one church that is my employer but I subcontract out to other Catholic Churches (and up until now, Protestant churches). I'm too small for anyone to pick out but you never know.
July 20, 2011 at 11:30 pm
Blocked from facebook. Unbelievable. Kind of proves the point, doesn't it?
July 20, 2011 at 11:45 pm
I remember reading when a similar situation occured regarding a photographer. Seemed to me that I would have sent my most inexperienced employee to photograph the event with a dollar store disposable camera. They wanted photographs, they got 'em. (But so poor they wouldn't want 'em.)
July 20, 2011 at 11:57 pm
So let me get this straight: the homosexual couple is free to impose their belief system on the innkeepers and the innkeepers aren't free to run their business as they see fit?
Gee. Never saw this coming. Freedom, justice & tolerance for all indeed.
July 21, 2011 at 12:06 am
Just like Canada.
http://catholicforum.fisheaters.com/index.php?topic=773643.0;wap2
July 21, 2011 at 12:07 am
And that is the game: forcing Christians to act against their principles. I'm telling you, we oughta play this game right back at 'em, as I've said before. Let's storm trendy places and demand employment, and let's wear Uber-Christian T-shirts and such while doing it. Let's form large groups to go from drag revue to drag revue and heckle, just to ruin the atmosphere. Let's populate gay bars and demand they put Gregorian chant on the jukeboxes. Let's all move to Key West or San Fran and demand to march in their parades as "Those Who Like Sex in the 'Missionary Position'"! Let's join the little Rainbow Clubs on campuses and in highschools and campaign to become their presidents! Let's apply for jobs as reporters for "queer" publications! Let's teach "queer studies" classes our way!
July 21, 2011 at 12:13 am
…and then one of the Knights was fired by his Employer for being a Knight.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2005/dec/05121302
July 21, 2011 at 12:41 am
I am appalled by the language the legislatures use to title their work to make Catholic/Christian work illegal. Think about the title of the Illinois legislation that is trying to require Catholic Social Services give foster children to gay couples:
Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act
Religious Freedom Protection!!! Really.
July 21, 2011 at 12:42 am
It's okay to refuse children at a restaurant or in retirement communities, but it's not okay to refuse this?
July 21, 2011 at 1:43 am
Do they refuse to host receptions for people who are divorced and getting remarried? Just curious.
July 21, 2011 at 2:31 am
Anonymous@8:43
I believe that they in fact do.
July 21, 2011 at 2:43 am
To get this to post on my personal page, I had to create a "Status" link and paste the link there.
I find this ironic considering all the links to anti-Catholic+Pro-Homosexual articles they didn't censor and I find offensive.
"Tolerance" it ain't.