Upstate New York Farm Must Allow Gay Weddings

[hrmjustin]

Anna Merlan

An upstate New York farm has been fined by the state Division on Human Rights for refusing to host a wedding for a lesbian couple two years ago. Liberty Ridge Farm is located in Schaghticoke, New York, a 7,000-person town some 30 miles north of Albany. When Melisa Erwin and Jennie McCarthy decided to get married in 2012, as they told the press at the time, they thought Liberty Ridge would be the perfect place: they'd gotten engaged at an apple orchard, and getting hitched in Liberty Ridge's barn seemed like the perfect continuation to their rural theme. (According to court filings, the farm hosts blueberry-picking, pig races, and something called "pumpkin cannon shows.&quot

The couple's exuberance lasted right up until McCarthy called Cynthia Gifford, one half of the husband and wife team who owns the farm. Gifford invited McCarthy and her intended to visit the farm, until, a moment later, McCarthy referred to her fiancee as "she." Gifford immediately replied that there was "a little bit of a problem."

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/08/liberty_ridge_farm_schaghticoke_melisa_erwin_jennie_mccarthy_cynthia_robert_gifford.php

[Cooley Hurd]

1. What miserable, hateful people...

...from your link:

But the Giffords, who were represented by attorney James Trainor Cutler Trainor & Cutler, argued that while the couple was welcome to visit the farm and participate in all the blueberry picking and pumpkin-cannoning their hearts desired, the Constitution protected the Liberty Ridge owners from having to host a wedding they objected to.

Other Christian answers to the NYCLU agreed. "The owners, Robert and Cynthia Gifford, object to gay 'marriage' based on their values and religious convictions," the New Yorker's Family Research Foundation wrote on their website. "They still have children at home, and believe that hosting a same-sex "marriage" would send the wrong message to the teenagers they are raising. The question before the State Division of Human Rights is whether or not homosexual rights will trump religious liberty."

I hope they reconsider, despite the fine.

[hrmjustin]

2. Just horrible!