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October 26, 2014

Coeur d'Alene REVERSES - Ministers Don't Have To Marry Gays

The city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, said a for-profit wedding chapel owned by two ministers doesn't have to perform same-sex marriages.

The city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, says the Hitching Post, a for-profit wedding chapel owned by two ministers, doesn't have to perform same-sex marriages.

The city has been embroiled in controversy ever since the owners of the Hitching Post sued the city. They say a city anti-discrimination law threatened to force them to marry same-sex couples now that gay marriage is legal in Idaho.

The story lit up conservative and gay-rights blogs. Wedding chapel owners Donald and Evelyn Knapp said they feared jail time or fines if they declined marriage services to a same-sex couple.

Initially, the city said its anti-discrimination law did apply to the Hitching Post, since it is a commercial business. Earlier this week, Coeur d'Alene city attorney Mike Gridley sent a letter to the Knapps’ attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom saying the Hitching Post would have to become a not-for-profit to be exempt.

But Gridley said after further review, he determined the ordinance doesn’t specify non-profit or for-profit.

“After we've looked at this some more, we have come to the conclusion they would be exempt from our ordinance because they are a religious corporation,” Gridley explained.

Story here.

6 comments:

Doom said...

Yet. There are still several other cases coming up. That was just the first, and least.

IanH said...

At last, a place that is rational!

Kid said...

I thought businesses could refuse service to anyone for any reason. Attire for example.

This is really stretching it. As in trailer trash could start suing studio 54 right?

yukio ngaby said...

@ Kid

Not when it comes to discrimination by race. A restaurant can't refuse to seat you because you're Black, for instance. Or a gun shop can't refuse to sell you a pistol because you're White. A restaurant's requirements for attire or the restrictions for being able to buy a gun or a country club's prerequisites, in theory, have to apply to everyone.

The main issue here is religious freedom and whether or not Leftist identity groups suddenly trump First Amendment rights.

Clue: clearly they don't. But tell me that a Supreme Court with Obama appointments will reach that decision.

Also there's an attempt to identify sexual orientation and/or gender identity as a racial group, and then shoe-horning them into the same protected status of federally acknowledged races.

Euripides said...

They'll try it again in a year, along with a myriad of others pushing homosexual dogma. Just because this attempt found some resistance, doesn't stop the liberal cockroaches from trying again and again until they get the power they want.

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

Looks like the comrades at city hall backed down. Smart move yea who relies on tourist dollars.