Post: #1

Christian Farmers Fined $13,000 for Refusing to Host Same-Sex Wedding

Quote:The owners of a small family farm in upstate New York fined $13,000 for discriminating against a same-sex couple for refusing to host a wedding on their property are fighting back.

In an appeal filed today before an appellate division of the New York Supreme Court, a lawyer for Cynthia and Robert Gifford, owners of Liberty Ridge Farm near Albany, N.Y., argued that when finding them guilty, the court did not consider their constitutional freedoms and religious beliefs.

“[The decision] violates the Giffords’ free exercise of religion, freedom of expressive association, and freedom of expression protected under the United States and New York Constitutions,” James Trainor, an allied attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, wrote in the appeal.

The Giffords were found guilty of “sexual orientation discrimination” by an administrative law judge last July.

Because Liberty Ridge Farm is open to the public for seasonal activities such as an annual fall festival, the state of New York classifies it as a public accommodation that therefore cannot discriminate on the basis of certain personal characteristics, including sexual orientation.

“Discrimination in the name of civil rights is as abhorrent as discrimination which does violence to the concept of civil rights,” wrote the administrative law judge.

In a statement issued to press today, Trainor said the judge’s order “forces the Giffords to host same-sex ceremonies or to host no wedding ceremonies at all.” He added:

The government is essentially saying to the Giffords, give up your faith, or give up your livelihood.

The conflict began on Sept. 25, 2012, when Melisa Erwin and Jennifer McCarthy, a lesbian couple, called the Giffords to ask them to host their same-sex wedding at Liberty Ridge Farm.

The Giffords live on the second and third floor of the barn and, when they host weddings on the first floor, open part of the second floor as a bridal suite.

Not wanting to go against her beliefs of traditional marriage, Cynthia Gifford politely declined the request. Unbeknownst to the Christian couple, the caller recorded their conversation. Shortly thereafter, the lesbian couple filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights.

“We’re not hateful people,” Gifford said in an interview with The Daily Signal, holding back tears. “We just believe that a marriage is between a man and a woman, and we do not want to hold a [same-sex] marriage ceremony here on our family farm because the state tells us we have to do it.”

As punishment, the government fined the family $10,000 and ordered them to pay an additional $3,000 to the women. The Giffords were also required to attend staff re-education training classes to teach the state’s viewpoint on marriage. These are the stipulations that the family is challenging with their appeal this week.

Post: #2

Sounds insane enough to be true.

I suppose if the gays can get the state to attack you for saying "sorry we don't provide gay marriage services", best say "certainly! but we're fully booked at the moment, we'll get back to you if something opens up".

Post: #3

Quote:The Giffords were also required to attend staff re-education training classes to teach the state’s viewpoint on marriage

That's a chillingly terrifying sentence.

Here's a passage from George Orwell's 1984 describing the re-education process.

Quote: “You are a slow learner, Winston,” said O’Brien gently.

“How can I help it?” he blubbered. “How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are
four.”

“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”

He laid Winston down on the bed.... O’Brien motioned with his head to the man in the white coat....

The pain flowed into Winston’s body. The needle must be at seventy, seventy-five. He had shut his eyes this time. He knew that the fingers were still there, and still four. All that mattered was somehow to stay alive until the spasm was over....

“How many fingers, Winston?”

“Four. I suppose there are four.... I am trying to see five.”

“Which do you wish: to persuade me that you see five, or really to see them?”

“Really to see them.”

“...How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?”

“I don’t know....Four, live, six—in all honesty I don’t know.”

“Better,” said O’Brien.

A needle slid into Winston’s arm. Almost in the same instant a blissful, healing warmth spread all through his body. The pain was already half-forgotten. He opened his eyes and looked up gratefully at O’Brien.... If he could have moved he would have stretched out a hand and laid it on O’Brien’s arm. He had never loved him so deeply as at this moment, and not merely because he had stopped the pain. The old feeling, that at bottom it did not matter whether O’Brien was a friend or an enemy, had come back. O’Brien was a person who could be talked to. Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.... In some sense that went deeper than friendship, they were intimates; somewhere or other, although the actual words might never be spoken, there was, a place where they could meet and talk.

O’Brien was looking down at him with an expression which suggested that the same thought might be in his own mind. When he spoke it was in an easy, conversational tone.

“Do you know where you are, Winston?” he said.

“I don’t know. I can guess. In the Ministry of Love.”...

“And why do you imagine that we bring people to this place?”

“To make them confess.”...

“No!” exclaimed O’Brien. His voice had changed extraordinarily, and his face had suddenly become both stern and animated. “No! Not merely to extract your confession, nor to punish you. Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?”

Post: #4

This event took place back in 2012... they just recently filed the appeal.

Oh, and:

Post: #5

(07-04-2015 09:26 AM)RIslander Wrote:  This event took place back in 2012... they just recently filed the appeal.

Oh, and:

Post: #6

The SJWs are on the hunt for Christian-owned businesses. Note that Orthodox Jewry and Islamic businesses aren't seen as fair game.

Post: #7

Jewry will be. There seems to be a growing feminist influence in Orthodox Jewry. Islamic probably is off limits due to fear or a mutual goal.

Post: #8

(07-04-2015 08:56 AM)Renzy Wrote:  Christian Farmers Fined $13,000 for Refusing to Host Same-Sex Wedding

Quote: The Giffords were also required to attend staff re-education training classes to teach the state’s viewpoint on marriage.

Post: #9

Going out of your way to specifically find a marriage venue or host that will say 'no' to serving you just so that you can record it, file a lawsuit and let it be thrown around the media only shows the amount of attention whoring and "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" going on with modern-day faggots and dykes.

The fact that these farmers have to now be the ass-end of their attention whoring and as such will cost them thousands of dollars shows the direction our society is going. Support this new accepted lifestyle that's all about peace and equality or we'll take your money, you homophobic assholes.

Post: #10

(07-04-2015 09:56 AM)Goldhawkstar Wrote:  Going out of your way to specifically find a marriage venue or host that will say 'no' to serving you just so that you can record it, file a lawsuit and let it be thrown around the media only shows the amount of attention whoring and "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" going on with modern-day faggots and dykes.

The fact that these farmers have to now be the ass-end of their attention whoring and as such will cost them thousands of dollars shows the direction our society is going. Support this new accepted lifestyle that's all about peace and equality or we'll take your money, you homophobic assholes.

It's a lot more than mere attention whoring. These are fundamentally evil people. When they decided to record the conversation, they had a specific goal in mind. That goal was to destroy a small, family owned business.

Small businesses simply cannot afford a $13000 fine, and that would put many out of business. Perhaps these dykes probably don't fully understand this as they've likely never thought about doing anything productive or producing anything of value. However, the satisfaction of punishing people who have done no harm to anyone other than holding a differing opinion was more important in these women's mind than promoting "gay acceptance," or drawing attention to the plight of poor homosexuals.

Discrimination of the basis of sexuality is forbidden by law. The right to freedom of religion is also protected by law. This is a case where these rights have clashed. A person with any sense of humanity would decide to simply accept the choice of the business owners and move on. I'm sure they have plenty of gay friends who know companies more than willing to take their business.

Post: #11

If this keeps up they will have to be more clever...instead of refusing to hold the marriage, perhaps agree to do it, but then also invite the "God hates fags" protesters from Florida to show up.

Post: #12

As others have noted, this goes beyond the law and is just being evil.

I'm Jewish, I'd never insist that a Christian pastor perform my wedding. Likewise, I can't imagine a Christian insist that a Rabbi perform their wedding.

Or to put it simply, how about just not being an utter fucking asshole to people just because they won't do what you want them to?

In the the video from the article, the couple even says that they hire gays, have no issue with them coming to their festivals. They just don't want to host gay marriages.

Now, in the SJW mind, they'd say it's the same as discriminating based on race. It's not. Just like men and women are different (which SJWs don't understand), race and lifestyle are different.

I believe gays have the right to get married. I don't believe they should be able to force others to host or perform these ceremonies.

Post: #13

Post: #14

(07-04-2015 11:51 AM)Dusty Wrote:  

whoever came up with that is a genius. An old USSR rainbow flag would also be useful. Either establishment had toadies that would go around and 'rat out' their enemies by telling the police that they held views against the state, or were doing something else wrong and poof...straight to the gulags.

Post: #15

Post: #16

America seems to have quite literally taken 1984 as a blueprint for a the brightest of possible futures. Is there anywhere sacred left on this planet? I wonder how those lesbians would react to a straight couple calling them up and asking to marry on their property? Likely with abuse and a stern threat of completely disproportionate, but entirely enforcable legal action, I suspect

Post: #17

(07-04-2015 12:27 PM)Dr. Howard Wrote:  

(07-04-2015 11:51 AM)Dusty Wrote:  

whoever came up with that is a genius. An old USSR rainbow flag would also be useful. Either establishment had toadies that would go around and 'rat out' their enemies by telling the police that they held views against the state, or were doing something else wrong and poof...straight to the gulags.

A lot of the Nazis were homosexual, including probably Hitler himself.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oc....booksnews

Post: #18

Being nice doesn't pay. Dykes like these want attention and money and when you have the state behind you it creates an even bigger asshole than normal.

Post: #19

Ugh! Bunch of idiots!

If you want to deny someone service based on things that would get you sued, claim that you're going to be performing renovations and you'll be unable to schedule anything during that time.

Post: #20

This is just the beginning folks. Just the beginning. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Post: #21

Christians need to learn that Lefty causes are not on their side.

Post: #22

I think any Christian business that hosts weddings is going to have to get a lot, lot smarter. Send a bunch of confusing paper work out to be signed, and then reject them based on some seemingly "critical" piece of bureaucracy rather than outright say "no, because you are gay".

Post: #23

Good, fuck those farmers for thinking they have the freedom to decide who they want to conduct business with. Freedom of Association is just another concept of the White Christian Male power structure to oppress others.

Post: #24

Oh man does it get worse, remember that bakery that had to shutdown because they refused to make a cake for a gay wedding, well now they're being fined $135,000 in damages by another lesbian couple. Democracy is so broken, the most popular group of the time gets to point guns at people it disagrees with.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-oreg...story.html

Post: #25

Loyalty is never a matter of convenience; it's believing in an idea and fighting bitterly to defend it, even when all seems lost. I believed in the America of my childhood, and served it proudly in uniform with the hope the America I grew up in could offer my sons and grandsons even a fraction of what it had offered me.

But for the first Independence Day of my life, reflecting on all that's happened over the past year, I found myself celebrating not the country that is, but the country that was. Outrage is natural, decline is inevitable, governance and laws evolve over time. But when the exception becomes the norm, when the inconceivable becomes the expected, when the most sacred traditions of our people are swept into the dustbin of history, what can be loved?

My heart will always belong to the Appalachians, but if this is the America my children will inherit, I disown it.