Houston Landscapers Condemned for Refusing Business With Gay Couple

[Logan13]

As a business owner, I have the right to refuse service to anyone. You do not have to like it, but it is my right just as it is your right to be gay.
Houston Landscapers Condemned for Refusing Business With Gay Couple
Nov. 09, 2006
AP
HOUSTON — A few short weeks ago, Garden Guy was just a mom-and-pop landscaping business that promoted itself as "making Houston beautiful since 1991" and promised to treat its customers with respect and honesty.

Since then, though, the business has been vilified around the world as a bunch of bigots because its Christian conservative owners refused to do work for a gay couple.

Michael Lord and Gary Lackey, a gay couple requesting bids for a landscaping job at their new house, received a polite — and, well, honest — e-mail from Sabrina Farber, a co-owner of Garden Guy: "I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work for homosexuals."

Stunned, Lackey forwarded the e-mail to 200 friends, asking them not to patronize Garden Guy and urging them to pass the word on to friends and family. "I'm still shocked by the ignorance that exists in today's society," Lackey said in his e-mail.

And word was indeed passed on — as fast as the Web could carry it.

Within days, the e-mail had been forwarded to thousands of people around the world, and quickly became the subject of heated and often ugly debates on the Internet. Because of the furor, a professional association of landscapers created a nondiscrimination policy.

A forum on the Garden Guy Web site, normally reserved for discussions about landscaping and shrubbery, was bombarded with angry comments and venomous attacks from as far away as Australia.

Some people attacked the Farbers' beliefs, threatened the couple and their five children, and said they ought to be sodomized. Others condemned gays as sinners headed toward damnation.

Farber, whose company's Web site has long included Biblical quotes and a link to a Web site that opposes gay marriage, said she was shocked by the reaction.

"It was just our intent to uphold our rights as small business owners to choose our clientele," she said. "All the hate, the threats of sodomizing my children, the threats of me being murdered, came out because of a very businesslike straightforward e-mail I sent. The crowd of tolerance and diversity is not so tolerant."

But Farber said she and her husband have also gotten hundreds of calls and messages offering encouragement and have been touched by that. "We just cried. We have been through so much," Farber said. "We become accidental crusaders for Christ."

Lackey and Lord did not return calls from the Associated Press.

"Imagine if it had been a black or Hispanic couple that they wouldn't provide services to. It's really bad," said Jack Valinski, a Houston gay activist. "A lot of gay couples have kids, live in the suburbs and have neighbors that are straight. Yet, we still have instances like this. There is still always that underlying discrimination we all have to deal with."

Houston, unlike Austin and Dallas, has no ordinance prohibiting businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

Farber's e-mail reached the Harrisburg, Pa., offices of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, which said that the Farbers were misrepresenting themselves as current members of the group and no longer belong.

After receiving hundreds of outraged calls and e-mails, the 1,200-member association issued a statement criticizing the Farbers and created a nondiscrimination policy.

"It has come to our attention that a former member has declined a professional engagement on the grounds of the prospective clients' sexual orientation. This conduct does not conform to the policy and practice of APLD," the organization said.

[Phreak101]

Gay, straight, black, white, brown, whatever..pay me $$ you're cool with me

[spywizard]

i agree with you... my question is how do you know thier sexual orientation?? i mean, if a Pedophile you could tell by the "P" on his forehead... i mean that's how we identify gays is the "G" on thier forehead...




(Sarcasm) but i do agree with you.. I don't do business with people i don't like... gay or straight ... my point is why do i need to know a person's sexual preference..

[alphaman]

Even I am wondering if this was the right thing to do. I don't agree with homosexuality, but hate the sin not the sinner. So -- do they not do business with an alcoholic?

They could have used it as an opportunity to share the Gospel.

[Tock]

As a business owner, I have the right to refuse service to anyone.

Not really.

You may be free to tell a gay person that you won't serve them because they are gay, but try telling a black person you won't serve them because they are black. Some folks are protected, others are not. Discriminating against gays is allowed in some locales, prohibited in others. It's dumb to do so, regardless of where one may be. It's bad business, plus it shows what a jerk one is.

[Logan13]

Not really.

You may be free to tell a gay person that you won't serve them because they are gay, but try telling a black person you won't serve them because they are black. Some folks are protected, others are not. Discriminating against gays is allowed in some locales, prohibited in others. It's dumb to do so, regardless of where one may be. It's bad business, plus it shows what a jerk one is.

Gays are not quite on the level that blacks are in regards to protections against discrimination, the US is obviously not ready for that. I agree, as long as they pay, and they would probably pay well I would do business with them. But some of us seem to forget that even those in the majority have rights as well. Ever walk into an establishment and see the sign "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, Thank you - The management." Is refusing to do business with a homosexual any different than refusing service to gang bangers or Clergyman? If you call it discrimination in regards to gays, is it discrimination against gang bangers and clergyman as well? Truth is any group can claim discrimination at some point in time, and no group is any better nor deserves any more special treatment than the next group does, no matter how loud they whine about it...........

[Shang III]

Does it really matter? With that kind of short sighted attitude, this business owner can't be that successful. Clean the damn yard, take the money and get out of the personal lives of other people.

[Tock]

Is refusing to do business with a homosexual any different than refusing service to gang bangers or Clergyman?

Legally, ya, you can probably get in trouble for refusing service to a clergyman, providing the refusal is based on religious issues.
Gang bangers, you're safe there, unless the refusal is based on racial issues.

[Teabagger]

This again highlights that the "tolerant and diverse" crowd are really not. They are just as bigoted and narrow minded as those they attack. What is really at question here is rights...my right as a business owner to operate it how I see fit, according to my standards. It is like the smoking bans now in effect in so many states...no smoking in bars...the governemnt has no right. Bars are establishments people "choose" to go to...a bar owner should have the right to ban smoking in his bar...not the governemnt. Personal right and property rights...speak up libertarians...

[Tock]

This again highlights that the "tolerant and diverse" crowd are really not. They are just as bigoted and narrow minded as those they attack. What is really at question here is rights...my right as a business owner to operate it how I see fit, according to my standards.

Well, should you have the right to not provide service to blacks? Not too long ago, restaurant owners wouldn't serve you if you were black. And it was legal.

Would you say making those restaurant owners serve people of any race a good idea? Or is it treading on their property rights?

[Logan13]

Well, should you have the right to not provide service to blacks? Not too long ago, restaurant owners wouldn't serve you if you were black. And it was legal.

Would you say making those restaurant owners serve people of any race a good idea? Or is it treading on their property rights?

The problem with your arguement is that you try to equate race with sexual preference, it is no where near the same fight in the eyes of 80% of America.

[DSM4Life]

Oh they got what they deserved.

After this happened the couple sent the letter across the country about the company which in turn the company started losing HUGE amounts of work/money. The company now issued an apology letter

[Tock]

Originally Posted by Tock
Well, should you have the right to not provide service to blacks? Not too long ago, restaurant owners wouldn't serve you if you were black. And it was legal.

Would you say making those restaurant owners serve people of any race a good idea? Or is it treading on their property rights?

The problem with your arguement is that you try to equate race with sexual preference, it is no where near the same fight in the eyes of 80% of America.

Nope, I'm not saying race and sexual preference are the same thing. I am raising the question of whether you should have the right to discriminate at all.

I could have questioned your right to not serve Jews or Catholics or Hare Krishna or Muslims instead of blacks to make the same point.

Sheesh . . .

[Logan13]

Originally Posted by Tock
Well, should you have the right to not provide service to blacks? Not too long ago, restaurant owners wouldn't serve you if you were black. And it was legal.

Would you say making those restaurant owners serve people of any race a good idea? Or is it treading on their property rights?



Nope, I'm not saying race and sexual preference are the same thing. I am raising the question of whether you should have the right to discriminate at all.

I could have questioned your right to not serve Jews or Catholics or Hare Krishna or Muslims instead of blacks to make the same point.

Sheesh . . .

I did say that I would not have refused to do business with them. And again, any group could claim discrimination at some point. But most just move on with thier lives, not whine like little girls about it.....

[Tock]

. . . any group could claim discrimination at some point. But most just move on with thier lives, not whine like little girls about it.....

And who, pray tell, are you saying "whine like little girls?"

[Kärnfysikern]

This again highlights that the "tolerant and diverse" crowd are really not. They are just as bigoted and narrow minded as those they attack. What is really at question here is rights...my right as a business owner to operate it how I see fit, according to my standards.

One of those rare moments when I acctualy agree with you

If I own a buisness I should be able to hire who I want and do buisness with who i want. If a buisness owner is so stupid to exercise that right to discriminate chanses are he wont be in buissnes for long anyway.

But I have to say I love the smoke ban in sweden, now I can go to the pub without smelling like a ashtray afterwards.

[DSM4Life]

One of those rare moments when I acctualy agree with you

If I own a buisness I should be able to hire who I want and do buisness with who i want. If a buisness owner is so stupid to exercise that right to discriminate chanses are he wont be in buissnes for long anyway.

But I have to say I love the smoke ban in sweden, now I can go to the pub without smelling like a ashtray afterwards.

I love the smoke ban in phila for the same reason.