Business says its reputation tanked after shunning LGBTQ group, sues for $2.3M

[HAB911]

A Portland business that claims its reputation nosedived after it turned away an LGBTQ customer based on orders from Holy Rosary Church filed a $2.3 million lawsuit this week against the church.

Ambridge Event Center rented out a large space at 1333 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to the public for conventions, weddings and other parties, according to the lawsuit. The business leased the space from the building’s owner, Holy Rosary Church, and was under “strict orders” laid out in a “morals clause” to turn away business from the gay and lesbian community, the suit states.

In February 2015, the Ambridge Event Center followed the church’s orders by telling an African American LGBTQ support group, the PFLAG Portland Black Chapter, that it couldn't rent out the space for the group’s annual party, according to the suit and media coverage at the time.

After a spate of bad press, Ambridge Event Center claims that government agencies and businesses not associated with the LGBTQ community wanted nothing to do with the event center, the suit says.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2018/05/business_says_its_reputation_t.html

[gopiscrap]

1. tough fucking shit the Supreme Court said

money is free speech, so the use of one's money is free speech too fucking bad on the red neck homophobe's

[sdfernando]

2. This is just plain stoooopid!

They knew the clause was in the lease and signed it anyway...and they didn't think this would come back and bite them at some point?

[workinclasszero]

3. Looks like the invisible hand of the free market has spoken

I thought gay haters were all for that?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. But not like that!!!

[workinclasszero]

5. IKR?