Anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom has posted a response to a letter from the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho relating to the litigation group's discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a local wedding chapel
Anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has posted a response to a letter from the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho relating to the litigation group's discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a local wedding chapel, reports Joe My God.
Donald and Evelyn Knapp, the owners of Hitching Post, a wedding chapel in Coeur d'Alene, claim in the lawsuit that the city's ordinance prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians is unconstitutionally forcing them to violate their religious beliefs by performing same-sex marriages.
Back in May, the Knapps said that they would rather close their doors than perform same-sex wedding ceremonies.
The letter sent by the city to ADF on October 20th makes it clear that, although the Knapps registered their business as a religious corporation early this month, “based on the facts and their corporate status at the time [the couple refused to perform a same-sex wedding],” Hitching Post comes under the city's non-discrimination order.
However, ADF has posted a response on its website backtracking on claims that Hitching Post has in fact been registered as a non-profit religious organization. ADF has attacked the city's “disingenuous waffling” and is now arguing that the Coeur d'Alene intends to “prosecute a for-profit business.”
“The city has said explicitly, repeatedly, and publicly that it would prosecute a for-profit business. That's what the Hitching Post is, and it has never claimed to be anything other than that.
"While the Knapps do operate a ministry, they charge a fee for the ceremonies in order to be able to make a modest living. Therefore, the city, in its letter and elsewhere, is admitting that it would prosecute these pastors, who are clearly under a present threat of being sent to jail, fined, or both.
"The city has had months to figure out its own ordinance, and our clients have years of incarceration and devastating fines hanging over their heads. The city's disingenuous waffling is indefensible.”
Earlier this month, the ADF began lobbying Slovakia's constitutional court to allow activists to place a referendum on the country's ballot that would reinforce the current bans on gay marriage, adoption, and domestic partner protections. The ADF's efforts in promoting bigotry abroad were profiled in Human Rights Campaign's "Export of Hate" report last month.
Watch an ABC report on the case, AFTER THE JUMP…
