The Giffords Lose Their Appeal, Literally and Figuratively

People just don’t get it … still.

Simply because you run a business and a gay client comes into do business with you and you have some wacknut belief that the baby Jeebus doesn’t like The Gays, does not mean you can discriminate. I mean, it’s illegal and, please, tell, me, where oh where did you ever read about the Baby Jeebus discriminating against anyone?

Robert and Cynthia Gifford [right] own Liberty Ridge Farm, a wedding venue in upstate New York, and back in 2012 they refused to hold a wedding reception, for which they were being paid, and in which they were not invited to, for Melissa and Jennifer McCarthy.

You know, because the Baby Jeebus appeared to them in a dream bearing a sign that said “My Dad Hates Fags.”

Well, the McCarthy’s sued and won, and so the Giffords appealed that ruling and now they have lost that appeal, too. The New York state appeals court unanimously affirmed the State Division of Human Rights’ ruling that the Giffords violated the state’s nondiscrimination law. You know, the law, which is what this country is based on, not that history book the Giffords read.

Idiotically, though the Giffords argument was that because their farm is private property, they should not be considered a public accommodation even though they are operating it as a business for the public … well, not the gay public. And they played that tired song about how allowing these two women to pay them for the use of their public facility violated their religious freedom and their freedom of speech, even though their still have their faith and they can still spew their anti-gay hate speech masked as faith.

Well, the court rejected these claims outright because, wait for it, Liberty Ridge is open to the public as a venue for wedding ceremonies and receptions, so its facilities “fall comfortably within the broad definition of ‘place of public accommodation.'”

Look, Giffords, do this: turn your public venue into a private one, and host parties only for people who believe as you do—realizing, of course, that those numbers are dwindling every day … I mean, how many more times can Kim Davis get married before even God shouts, “It’s enough!”?

Put a sign up; take out an ad; let people know that the Baby Jeebus doesn’t want The Gays around you and then see how many people want to hire you, or rent your farm.

Hate doesn’t pay, even when you say it’s because of God.

Oh, and on a political note, this is just another reason we need to vote Democratic in the upcoming elections, because if a Republican gets into office, and a justice on the Supreme Court retires, he or she will be replaced by a conservative judge, and these kinds of lawsuits might have a completely different, totally discriminatory, anti-LGBT outcome.

The soapbox is closed.

Gifford Photo: AP Photo/Mike Groll

Think Progress