Haven’t seen any other stories here about this so I guess I’ll take a shot at it.
Yesterday, Deep South Voice, a Mississippi-based progressive news blog, reported that a venue known as Boone’s Camp Event Hall, located in Boonesville, MS, had refused to host a wedding between a black man and a white woman because they “don’t do ‘gay’ or ‘mixed race’ weddings” because of their Christian beliefs. Actually it’s worse. Kindly watch the video below and pay very close attention to the closed captioning:
A little slip of the tongue reveals what’s really behind this assertion of “sincerely held religious beliefs.” In explaining why the venue won’t allow the interviewer’s brother to get married there, the owner says “because of our Christian race...I mean our Christian belief.” Really I think she actually meant what she originally said albeit in a completely delusional yet also serious way.
The article notes that a lesbian couple seeking to hold their wedding at Boone’s Hall was refused use of the venue last year with the owner saying the very same thing.
As noted in the article, and in the video, in 2016 Mississippi passed, HB 1523, a law that essentially allows any venue to discriminate against gay/lesbian couples in the provision of marriage services based on the venue owner’s sincerely held religious belief that marriage must be between a man and a woman, and also, incidentally, permits them to refuse to recognize a person’s gender other than that assigned at birth.
I suspect most people here who are reading this won’t really need to explain why all of this is a slippery slope. Once you make the law a party to one form of discrimination you can justify anything. And if you do it on the basis of a sincerely held religious belief who’s going to argue? Certainly not the courts. I can’t see any reason, if HB 1523 is considered legitimate, a similar law pertaining to “mixed race” marriages wouldn’t also be considered legitimate, at least until it’s challenged in the court. And for the record HB 1523 was contested in federal court. It was struck down at the district court level but the lower court’s ruling was reversed on appeal. And the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of the appellate level ruling.
More from the linked article:
One of the Mississippi House Representatives who supported HB 1523, Rep. Robert Foster (R-DeSoto County) told the Jackson Free Press in a January interview that he still supports the law and would tell a gay couple who was turned down by a wedding venue to find someone else to do business with.
“Would you say that to an interracial couple?” the Jackson Free Press asked Foster.
“I think that’s completely different situation. I just do, to me. It is not an issue, I think. I think race is completely different than getting somebody involved in a religious ceremony that goes against their core belief,” he replied.
“There are people who say they oppose interracial marriages on the basis of religious beliefs, though,” the Jackson Free Press pushed back. “Historically, Christians in the South believed God ‘made the races separate.'”
Foster provided a mealymouthed response to the Free Press’s observation.
There is no indication, so far as I can tell, that the people who were recently refused services are contemplating legal action. Which is unfortunate if understandable. But really this should scare everyone.