The war against business owners who do not wish to violate their deeply held beliefs continues. Judeo-Christian values will not be tolerated by the Left as they relentlessly push for the acceptance same-sex “marriage.”
The operators of a popular agro-tourism farm in Schaghticoke, New York have been fined $13,000 by the state of New York for their refusal almost two years ago on religious grounds to host a same-sex wedding ceremony.
The New York Human Rights Commission concluded that Robert and Cynthia Gifford, who operate Liberty Ridge Farm, violated the rights of Jennifer McCarthy and Melissa Erwin who had the right to their “marriage” under New York’s 2011 passage of same sex “marriage.”
Cynthia Gifford in 2012 had told the couple she would have a problem allowing their wedding ceremony on the farm due to her Roman Catholic religious beliefs. The couple later found a different farm to hold their ceremony.
The fine, levied by Human Rights Commission Judge Migdalia Pares and approved by Commissioner Helen Diane Foster, included a $10,000 penalty to the farm and awarded $1,500 to each of the women for the “mental anguish” involved in their being rebuffed.
The Giffords must also institute anti-discrimination re-education classes and procedures for their staff.
“All New Yorkers are entitled to their own religious beliefs, but businesses cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation any more than they can based on race or national origin,” said NYCLU Staff Attorney Mariko Hirose, the plaintiffs’ lead lawyer in the case.
The attorney for the Giffords, Jim Trainor, said they were considering an appeal. He noted that the Giffords has hosted LGBT events at Liberty Ridge but they had a problem with the religious part of a planned wedding event. “They just felt the religious ceremony violated their beliefs,” he said.
Trainor contends that the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision set a precedent that allows businesses to make decisions with their religious beliefs in mind. In the Hobby Lobby case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government must have a compelling interest for their activities in order violate a citizen’s beliefs. It was decided Federal government did not have such an interest to force Hobby Lobby to provide certain types of contraceptives for female employees in its health benefit package.
Does the government have a compelling interest in forcing accept their own redefined version of marriage on private citizens?
Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation writes:
The Giffords were not engaging in any insidious discrimination—they were acting on their belief about the nature of marriage. They do not object to gay or lesbian customers attending the fall festivals, or going berry picking, or doing any of the other activities that the farm facilitates. The Giffords’ only objection is being forced to abide by the government’s views on sexuality and host a same-sex wedding. The Human Rights Commission has now declared this historic belief about marriage to be “discrimination.”
In an age where religion beliefs are confined to the mind and cannot be practiced in the workforce, it is either comply with the dictates of the government or lose the farm.
Faith, Family and Freedom Banquet
With Eric Metaxas on Sept. 19th!
