The Human Rights Campaign excoriated Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson over a report that he disparaged transgender people in meetings with staff this week.
“Ben Carson has spent his career in politics expressing disgust toward the existence of transgender people,” Alphonso David, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group, said late Thursday.
“From his comments on trans people in the military to his support for a proposal that would literally permit emergency shelters to turn away trans people who are homeless to his unqualified support for a White House that has made attacking trans people a mantra, it is hardly surprising that Ben Carson would blatantly dehumanize trans people in his official capacity,” David said.
David was responding to a Washington Post report Thursday that Carson had expressed concern about “big, hairy men” trying to use women’s bathrooms. Carson also “lamented that society no longer seemed to know the difference between men and women,” during a visit to San Francisco this week, the Post reported, citing agency staffers.
A senior HUD official disputed the account in a statement to the Post.
“The Secretary does not use derogatory language to refer to transgendered individuals. Any reporting to the contrary is false,” the official said.
Carson’s department earlier this year signaled that it would propose a rule to allow HUD-subsidized homeless shelters to consider a person’s sex or gender identification in determining whether they can be admitted.
Organisers of self-defence classes for LGBT+ people say they have noticed a “substantial increase in demand” as the rate of hate crimes continues to rise.
Martial arts like Krav Maga and jiu-jitsu are reportedly being tailored to members of the LGBT+ community, who face a heightened risk of physical attacks in street settings.
Some workshops, such as Shaan Saar in Orlando, Florida, were established as a direct response to attacks against the LGBT+ community.
The group was founded after the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse gay nightclubwhich killed 49 people. Its instructors teach Krav Maga, a self-defence technique used by the Israeli Defence Forces.
“Krav Maga was actually created for this very purpose during World War II, as a way for those persecuted during the Holocaust to resist, protect themselves and survive,” the group’s co-founder Renee Rose told NBC.
“What we teach at Shaan Saar is specifically adapted for the LGBT+ community, women and violent crime survivors — those who experience hate crimes and need something that goes beyond what martial arts schools are capable of teaching.”
Courses are specifically designed to “address the neurobiology of an attacker” and have been developed alongside trained trauma therapists to offer compassionate, superior quality instruction.
Transgender people in the US are at particular risk of violence, with 19 trans people known to have been murdered so far this year. Almost all the victims were transgender women of colour.
“The community wants to be proactive and not wait for the worst-case scenario,” Rose said. “It’s a practical preparedness, and the classes and events we host have become increasingly popular, especially as trans crime continues to rise.”
LGBT+ violence is also on the rise in Brazil after “proud homophobe” Jair Bolsonaro became president in 2018. Rio de Janerio’s Piranhas Team, a self-defence group started by LGBT+ activists, noticed a significant uptick in members after the election.
Founder Halisson Paes told NBC: “We used to have two classes with about 10 people in each. After the elections, this number increased to five classes, also with about 10 people in each.”
A study recently published by the Brazilian Forum of Public Security found that LGBT+ murders rose from 99 in 2017 to 109 last year. A separate study by Grupo Gay da Bahia put the number closer to 320.
Paes believes self-defence classes create a sense of empowerment that “stops people feeling hostage to fear.”
Techniques like jiu-jitsu that use the attacker’s strength against them are becoming increasingly popular, according to Ronan Winters of the UK’s only LGBT-dedicated martial arts club.
The studio, Ishigaki Jujitsu, seeks to give LGBT+ people the confidence and tools to protect themselves in potentially dangerous situations.
Winters said: “People are quite often surprised that a LGBT martial arts club exists at all. We frequently get people saying to us they would have joined years ago if they had known it existed.”
As trauma psychologists, we’re leading a team to help alleviate psychiatric distress in gay, bi and trans males who have been sexually abused or assaulted.
In collaboration with two nonprofit organisations, MaleSurvivor and Men Healing, we recruited and trained 20 men who have experienced sexual abuse to deliver evidence-based online mental health interventions for sexual and gender minority males – an umbrella term for individuals whose sexual identity, orientation or practices differ from the majority of society.
This study should help men in this group who have been sexually assaulted know that they are not alone, that they are not to blame for their abuse, and that healing is possible.
But, there are some things that trauma psychologists already know about these men, such as how prevalent sexual abuse of men is and ways to help men recover.
All too common, all too traumatic.
Sexual abuse of boys and young men is more common than many people might think. (Pexels)
At least 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before their 18th birthday. This number rises to 1 in 4 men across their lifespan.
Sexual violation in gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals often complicates their sense of self, and how they fit, or don’t fit, into LGBTQ+ culture and communities. Such abuse may even impact their reaching out for help or reporting traumatic events as they fear stigmatisation or victim-blaming.
Men and women who have experienced sexual abuse and assault are at risk for a wide range of medical, behavioural and sexual disorders. They have high rates of several psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and dependence, depression and anxiety, as well as greater risk for suicide. They also have more educational, occupational and interpersonal difficulties than non-abused men. Further, sexual trauma is linked to medical illnesses, increased health care utilisation and poor quality of life.
But, sexual minority males who have experienced sexual trauma face even greater health disparities. Gay and bisexual men with histories of childhood and adult sexual victimisation are more likely to report greater numbers of sexually transmitted infections, increased sexual risk for human immunodeficiency virus, and higher sexual compulsivity than men with no history of sexual assault. In addition, sexual minority male survivors exhibit more negative psychological outcomes related to their sexual identities, such as lower self-esteem, distorted sense of self and difficulties forming healthy adult intimate relationships.
The cumulative impact of sexual abuse, in conjunction with individuals’ sexual minority status, also can result in higher rates of sexual re-victimisation, as well as anti-gay violence and discrimination.
Discrimination galore.
Gay and bisexual men are also exposed to significant minority stress, a term used to describe the sociopolitical stressors placed on individuals as a result of their minority status. Sexual orientation disparities start relatively early in development. LGBTQ+ individuals are disproportionately exposed to day-to-day discrimination, peer and parental rejection, unsupportive or hostile work or social environments, and unequal access to opportunities afforded to heterosexuals, including marriage, adoption and employment nondiscrimination.
Chronic expectations of rejection, internalised homophobia, alienation and lack of integration with the community can understandably lead to problems with self-acceptance. As a result, a sexual minority male who has experienced sexual abuse may feel deficient, inferior or impaired. Further, they may view themselves as shameful, undesirable, undeserving, or incapable of forming a loving relationship.
Many sexual minority males who have experienced sexual abuse internalise harmful beliefs that make it harder for them to heal. These myths include the false belief that men cannot be forced to have sex against their will; that men who become sexually aroused or have an erection when assaulted must have wanted or enjoyed it; and that real men should welcome any opportunity to have sex.
These men often bottle up additional detrimental myths, such as men become gay or bisexual because they were sexually abused, and sexual minority men are obsessed with sex, and that they molest children at higher rates than straight men. Sexual minority males who have been abused are not born with these beliefs. They learn them from their families, religion, society and the media. But, the more men hold these beliefs to be true, the harder it is for them to move forward in their psychological recovery.
There are many hurdles to male sexual abuse survivors receiving needed mental health care. When encountering perceived authority figures, such as health care providers, these men sometimes experience harsh judgment and distrust. In addition, when initiating psychological services, they may have difficulty finding knowledgeable and experienced health care providers who understand the nuances specific to male sexual abuse and, consequently, won’t disclose their sexual trauma.
Nondisclosure of sexual abuse may also be due to a male’s own lack of understanding of what abuse is. This is in line with research that found that the majority of men who endorsed survey items or behaviours indicating sexual abuse did not actually label themselves as sexual abuse survivors. Not disclosing one’s sexual trauma history is associated with increased emotional distress, while self-disclosure and seeking mental health services are related to psychological well-being.
The Mormon church has doubled down on its stance that marriage is “between a man and a woman”, despite adjusting one of its anti-LGBT+ policies.
President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M Nelson, addressed students at Mormon institution Brigham Young University (BYU) on Tuesday, September 17, to tell them about “five truths”.
This year, the church revoked this policy and said that bishops would have the power to decide whether or not to baptise someone raised in an LGBT+ family.
But, in his speech at the notoriously anti-gay university, Nelson reiterated that the Mormon church defines marriage as opposite-sex only.
He said: “In recent years, many countries, including the United States, have legalised same-sex marriage. As members of the church, we respect the laws of the land and abide by them, including civil marriage.
“The truth is, however, that in the beginning – in the beginning – marriage was ordained by God! And to this day it is defined by Him as being between a man and a woman.”
Nelson said that the 2015 policy was intended “to facilitate harmony in the home and avoid pitting children and parents against each other”.
He added: “Though it may not have looked this way to some, the 2015 and 2019 policy adjustments on this matter were both motivated by love.”
Its honour code states: “One’s stated same-gender attraction is not an Honour Code issue. However, the Honour Code requires all members of the university community to manifest a strict commitment to the law of chastity.
“Homosexual behaviour is inappropriate and violates the Honour Code.
“Homosexual behaviour includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings.”
Three people, including a transgender woman, were attacked in Portland, Oregon, in what police say may be a bias crime.
The assault happened in a downtown parking lot around 2:30 a.m. Thursday, and the assailants had fled by the time officers arrived, Portland police said in a statement.
“There were elements of the crime that possibly met the criteria for a Bias Crime,” Portland police said in the statement, which also asked anyone with information to come forward.
In Oregon, bias crimes are defined as any criminal act in which a person is targeted because of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity or national origin, Portland police said.
KGW reported that Thursday’s incident occurred a week after another transgender woman, Marla Standing-Owl, said she was attacked while driving for the ride-sharing service Lyft on Sept. 6 in Portland.
Standing-Owl said she was attacked by a male customer she picked up from a hotel who was drunk and told her “you’re nothing but a man.”
“I told him I don’t need bigotry in my car and that’s when he snapped,” she told the station. Standing-Owl said that the man punched her repeatedly while she was driving and that she pulled over and used pepper spray on the assailant before he ran off.
Every year, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) publishes a comprehensive report on HIV incidence and prevalence in the city, showing HIV trends to guide the public health response. Continuing a downward trend since the peak of the HIV epidemic in the 1990s, the most recent report with 2018 data shares a historic milestone reached by the city: Fewer than 200 HIV diagnoses occurred in San Francisco.
A total of 197 people were diagnosed with HIV last year in San Francisco. This is a 13% decline from 227 diagnoses made in 2017, and a 62% decline from 523 infections ten years ago in 2008. The peak number of HIV diagnoses in San Francisco occurred in 1992 with 2,327 diagnoses.
Most people (94%) living with HIV are aware of their status, and 91% of people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2018 entered care within one month. It is estimated that 74% of people with a last known address in San Francisco who are living with HIV were virally suppressed in 2017.
“I am really delighted that we in San Francisco, since the 1980s, have been at the forefront of pushing for innovative ways to change policies, new sciences and technologies to help us get to this milestone,” said Mayor London Breed at a press conference at Zuckerberg San Francisco General’s Ward 86. “This shows that when we work together with the community, with our policy makers, with our public health experts, and our nonprofits we can make a difference and save people’s lives.”
“We are pleased, but not satisfied,” said Diane Havlir, MD, who spoke on behalf of the Getting to Zero consortium. “We’re not satisfied because we had nearly 200 new diagnoses of HIV in our city—and it’s a preventable disease.”
Differences by Race and Ethnicity, Housing Status and for People who Inject Drugs
People of color, people experiencing homelessness and people who inject drugs continue to experience higher diagnosis rates, lower viral suppression rates and lower survival rates.
People of color are disproportionately affected by HIV
African American and Latinx men had the highest diagnosis rates (145 and 89 per 100,000), and rates increased from previous years. Diagnosis rates for white men have declined steadily since 2012. Among women, African Americans had a much higher diagnosis rate (35 per 100,000) than women of other races.
Overall, 74% of people living with HIV in San Francisco were virally suppressed, while viral suppression rates were lower for African Americans (68%), trans women (68%), women (66%), people who use injection drugs (65%), men who have sex with men who inject drugs (68%) and trans women who inject drugs (64%).
“San Francisco continues to make unprecedented progress towards ending the HIV epidemic,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “However, we continue to see racial disparities related to HIV health outcomes. To end HIV transmission and AIDS-related deaths, the public health system needs to address the systemic racism that is inhibiting our progress.”
“We have to double down on these gaps that we’re seeing,” said Havlir. “We need to listen, and we need to deploy new innovative approaches with tools that have. With PrEP. And with upcoming tools like long-acting injectable [HIV] therapies which could make it a lot easier for some of our populations.”
Homelessness compounds HIV risk and severity of health outcomes
As the number of new HIV diagnoses shrinks year after year in San Francisco, and the number of people experiencing homelessness grows, a higher proportion of HIV diagnoses are occurring among people without access to medical care, social support and prevention resources—in particular people without housing.
In 2018, 20% (40) of new HIV diagnoses were among people without housing compared to 10% (29) in 2015. There were 8,011 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco in January 2019, according to the 2019 San Francisco Homeless Point-in-Time Count and Survey, a 14% increase since 2013.
People without housing are also much less likely to be virally suppressed. Only 33% of people experiencing homelessness were virally suppressed, compared to 74% of people overall.
“We know that many elements that are key to success, for people living with HIV, are challenging if you don’t have a place to live,” said Monica Ghandi, MD, MPH, medical director of the SFGH HIV clinic. “That would be like making and keeping appointments. Where you store your medications, and where you keep them safe. Maintaining safe sex, and healthy eating. All of these barriers to taking your medications every day are amplified 100-fold if you don’t have a home.”
“Our focus on disparities really has to focus on ensuring that we reach people where they are,” said Hyman Scott, MD, MPH from Bridge HIV at SFDPH. “There are no ‘hard to reach’ populations—there are just ‘hard to deliver’ services. We need to re-think the way we approach some of these services that we deliver.”
HIV and people who inject drugs
People who inject drugs account for 25% of new HIV diagnoses, (10% are men who have sex with men who inject drugs; 1% are trans women who inject drugs; 14% are other people who inject drugs), a proportion which has risen over the years.
In addition to accounting for a higher proportion of HIV diagnoses, injection drug use is associated with worse health outcomes: People who inject drugs are less likely to be virally suppressed and have lower three-year survival rates after an AIDS diagnosis.
The percentage of people who are diagnosed with HIV who inject drugs is rising steadily every year, while reductions are seen in other populations including men who have sex with men.
“San Francisco has a robust syringe access program, which has kept HIV transmission rates low among people who inject drugs, but it’s not sufficient to eliminate HIV transmission among people who inject,” said Laura Thomas, director of harm reduction policy at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “Housing instability and displacement make it challenging for people who use substances to always do so safely. That’s why it’s so important for us to establish safe injection sites in our city.”
“Unless we invest in expanding low barrier substance use and mental health counseling services like those offered at our Harm Reduction Center and at the Stonewall Project, I worry that increased HIV infection trends like those we’re seeing with people who inject drugs will continue,” said Mike Discepola, MA, senior director of behavioral health services and the Stonewall Project at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “We will not get to zero new infections in San Francisco unless we focus services on our most vulnerable populations. This includes those who inject and use drugs, are experiencing homelessness or have untreated mental health concerns.”
An Aging HIV Population
With nearly 16,000 people living with HIV in San Francisco, two-thirds (10,691 people) are age 50 and older.
“We know that this is the generation that didn’t plan to live,” said Vince Crisostomo, manager of theElizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “They didn’t plan financially, they didn’t set up 401Ks. But, they did live. And service providers need to be thinking about how to adjust services to meet the needs of these long-term survivors. How can we provide culturally competent services for people of older age who are living with HIV?”
“To end the epidemic we cannot leave anyone behind,” said Hollendoner. “We must achieve this ambitious goal together and prove to the world that it can be done.”
Guided by a new 5-year strategic plan, San Francisco AIDS Foundation charts a course for improving the sexual health outcomes of people of color and other priority communities, establishing safe injection sites, creating a comprehensive network of health and wellness services for people over age 50 who are living with HIV, and living our values of racial justice.
Across the internet, companies buy ad space that appears alongside news, entertainment and sports articles. These purchasing decisions are made, in part, with ad verification partners that compare the articles’ content with “block lists” of thousands of terms that advertisers want to avoid associating their brand with, like “shooting,” “kill” and “attack.”
It doesn’t matter if the article is positive (“City’s murder rate down to historic low”) or negative (“Gruesome murder shocks city”), because both articles would be banned by a keyword block list.
But a new study from CHEQ, which runs a competing ad verification service, found that nearly two thirds of all nonpornographic and nonexplicit LGBTQ news content is banned by these lists, because the lists often contain neutral LGBTQ terms like “lesbian” and “bisexual.” Both PinkNews, a U.K.-based LGBTQ news site, and The Advocate, a U.S.-based LGBTQ news site, saw 73 percent of their positive or neutral content blocked by these lists.
The result, according to CHEQ, is that for LGBTQ news sites, the majority of their content may be unavailable for mainstream advertising. “This is severely damaging publishers’ ability to monetize premium content,” the report states, “making minority news and opinion unviable.”
“In the end, blocked words/blacklists hurt us all,” Orlando Reece, CEO of The Advocate’s parent company, Pride Media, told NBC News in an email. “We create content from an LGBTQ+ lens and use words that our community (as the general community) do not find offensive, such as ‘lesbian,’ ‘queer,’ etc. These words are part of our lives and how we communicate and identify with one another. Brand safety needs to be a conversation involving people, not technology that is ill-equipped for today’s digital publishing landscape.”
Reece also said the ad-blocking appears to be worsening. He said Pride Media sometimes works with ad-buying agencies and brands to clean up these “blacklists” before something is published, but they don’t always have the opportunity.
“Some agencies’ blacklists are agency-wide and they cannot be adjusted,” Reece explained. “In those instances we request a switch from blocking tags to monitoring tags, and this helps clean up the situation.”
The CHEQ report comes amidst a crisis in LGBTQ news content. Just this past year, LGBTQ-dedicated news sites GayStarNews and Into shut down, and other mainstream sites that consistently shone a light on LGBTQ issues laid off staff.
Daniel Avital, CHEQ’s chief strategy officer, said these advertisers are often progressive and seek to reach LGBTQ consumers, but a “technology deficit” is to blame.
“Companies struggle to determine the good stuff from the bad stuff, then the only recourse you have is to blacklist all of it,” Avital told NBC News.
Avital said he spoke to the founders of GayStarNews, who confirmed that declining ad revenue “was one of the key reasons” they shut down this year.
“If you’re an LGBTQ content creator, then you seem to be having a much harder time over the past two years to get ad dollars,” he said.
Surprisingly, the report notes, these block lists even affect sports sites, because they often use words like “shoot” for basketball. Sports site Bleacher Report had 67 percent of its neutral or positive stories blocked by these lists, according to CHEQ’s report.
Avital said the majority of major U.S. advertisers use these “crude” block lists, which range in size from a few hundred to thousands of blacklisted terms. But since the bidding for internet ads is automated and happens nearly instantaneously, smaller brands still bid for ads to appear in the space that larger brands pass on.
“What happens is the price of this inventory just goes down, because the big advertisers aren’t bidding for it, so the next in line gets it,” Avital explained. “So, if you’re able to monetize the content, you’re monetizing it for a much lower price than you would otherwise.”
Exposure to “conversion therapy” — efforts by a secular or religious professional to change a transgender person’s gender identity — is associated with thoughts of and attempts at suicide, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
Dr. Jack Turban, the study’s lead author and a resident physician in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said it was the first study “to show that gender identity conversion efforts are associated with adverse mental health outcomes, including suicide attempts.”
Turban said that previous reports showing the negative effects of conversion therapy, also known as “ex-gay therapy” or “reparative therapy,” have focused on efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation.
But this was novel, he said, because of its large sample size — over 27,000 transgender people responded to the survey — and its broad approach to identifying past efforts to change participants’ gender identity.
Seventy-one percent of respondents recalled speaking to a religious adviser or secular therapist about their gender identity, and of those, roughly 20 percent said these interactions involved efforts to change their gender identity from transgender to cisgender.
“The rate of previous suicide attempts among transgender people in the United States is extremely high, with 41 percent reporting that they have had that experience,” said study co-author Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, director of the National LGBT Health Education Center at The Fenway Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program.
“What this new study shows is that transgender people who are exposed to conversion efforts anytime in their lives have more than double the odds of attempting suicide compared with those who have never experienced efforts by professionals to convert their gender identity, he said.
Turban said one of the most alarming findings from the study was the even higher risk of psychological distress for those who reported exposure to conversion therapy during childhood. Those who were subjected to the practice before age 10 were four times more likely to report lifetime suicide attempts than the general transgender population, according to the findings.
“This is important because some experts continue to advocate for gender identity conversion efforts for young children,” Turban said in a statement. “We hope our findings contribute to ongoing legislative efforts to ban gender identity conversion efforts.”
Currently 18 states, along with the District of Columbia, ban the practice of conversion therapy on minors. And nearly every major health association — including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics — has spoken out against the practice.
“The term ‘conversion therapy’ is a misnomer,” Keuroghlian noted. “It suggests that conversion efforts are a legitimate therapeutic practice, even though we are finding that this practice is associated with significantly increased risk of harm, including serious psychological distress and potentially fatal suicide attempts.”
The study found no difference in the outcome based on whether the effort to change a person’s gender identity was conducted by a religious adviser or secular professional. According to the findings, the vast majority of conversion therapy is conducted by secular professionals, like psychologists or counselors, with religious efforts accounting for roughly a third of all conversion therapy efforts reported by this cohort.
“Current training of mental health clinicians in the U.S. does not usually include gender-affirming care as standard curriculum,” Keuroghlian said. “We hope this study will inspire clinical training programs to revise their standard curricula.”
“All clinicians need to be trained in concepts and terminology related to gender identity, how stigma is related to mental health disparities and best practices for gender affirmation grounded in scientific evidence,” he added.
This latest study builds on previous work published last month by Turban, Keuroghlian and their colleagues that found nearly 200,000 transgender people in the United States have been exposed to conversion therapy at some point in their lives.
A black transgender woman was found dead in her burning car in South Florida in what is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said.
It is the 18th killing of a transgender person in the U.S. this year.
The body of Bee Love Slater, 23, was discovered in Clewiston on Sept. 4, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Hendry County Sheriff Susan Harrell told NBC News in a statement that authorities could not initially identify the body “due to the burns and lack of identification available.” A medical examiner later identified the body through dental records, Harrell said.
The body of transgender woman Bee Love Slater was found in a burned car in Clewiston, Florida.via WBBH
According to The Advocate, investigators said Slater’s death was one of the most brutal murders they had seen.
Authorities have not said if they think Slater’s gender identity played a role in her death, the Palm Beach Post reports. Investigators are not releasing how she died.
Her death is the 18th killing of a transgender person in the United States this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which tracks the deaths of transgender people. A majority of those killed have been black transgender women.
George Wallace, executive director of LGBT+ Center Orlando, told NBC News in a statement Thursday that transgender women of color “are killed at a higher rate than that of their peers.”
“I find it sad and upsetting that our trans brothers and sisters continue to be targets of hate and intolerance,” Wallace said. “I wish I had a solution, but we must continue advocating and educating.”
Slater’s friend, Jackson, who asked to be referred to by his last name, told the Palm Beach Post that Slater underwent surgery this year. But, he said, she was verbally harassed and bullied online and had expressed concerns about her safety.
“We have more questions than answers,” Jackson said of her death.
The American Medical Association in June announced it efforts to bring national attention to what it called “the epidemic of violence against the transgender community, especially the amplified physical dangers faced by transgender people of color.”
A lesbian couple who asked to hold their wedding at a California winery were turned down because of the owner’s “religious beliefs.”
One of the brides posted her correspondence with the winery on Facebook to call for a boycott after its “overt homophobia”.
The email from Viaggio winery’s weddings and events director read: “While Viaggio Winery welcomes your business, we have never hosted a same-sex marriage.
“[The owners] understand that California statutory law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and they don’t like to think they would ever discriminate on that basis even if a law allowed them to do so.
“However, the owner also has a very strong personal religious belief regarding marriage, which is for marriage to be between heterosexual couples only. They believe that the United States Constitution and the California Constitution protect these religious beliefs and their right to express them.”
It then said that the owners would be willing to let the couple hold their reception there and take photos in their wedding dresses, as long as the ceremony was not on their property.
Responses to the Facebook post included: “The nerve thinking you and your beautiful bride would want to spend a dime there, or expose your family and friends to such a bigoted environment, after being told of the owner’s ‘feelings.’”
Another person said: “As a Christian I am so sick and tired of people using Jesus as a cover or an excuse for their homophobia. While they offer to take your money. How generous.”
The winery owners Teri and Larry Lawrence are also real estate agents.
According to her biography on the couple’s real estate website, Lawrence is “an active member of Eagle Forum of Sacramento, where she keeps abreast of current events regarding the family and business affairs”.
The Eagle Forum of Sacramento says it opposes same-sex marriage, abortion, sex education that does not teach abstinence or “‘New World Order’ interventions”.
Lawrence later provided a statement to FOX40 in which she said she had changed her mind about allowing same-sex couples to marry at the winery.
She said: “I realise now that contrary to my intent, this was hurtful to the people involved. Our staff, our customers, and our community have helped me see that I was wrong.”
The couple found another venue and are now happily married.
