The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: mystery-ak on December 01, 2013, 02:23:12 am
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http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/christian-bb-owners-lose-supreme-court-appeal-forced-to-sell-business-after (http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/christian-bb-owners-lose-supreme-court-appeal-forced-to-sell-business-after)
Christian B&B owners lose Supreme Court appeal: forced to sell business after gay couple complains
BY HILARY WHITE
Thu Nov 28, 2013 17:06 ESTTags: Bulls, Freedom, Gay Marriage, Uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY4SiMlFPuk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY4SiMlFPuk)
LONDON, November 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Peter and Hazelmary Bull, the Christian hoteliers fined for refusing a single room to two homosexual men in September 2008, have lost their appeal to the UK’s Supreme Court, with the court ruling that their company policy was “discriminatory.”
Despite the fact that the couple proved that their policy applied equally to any unmarried couples, and not just homosexuals, all five judges ruled the Bulls’ policy to be a case of illegal discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and dismissed their appeal. Two of the judges said the discrimination was “indirect,” but unjustified.
The elderly couple said they were “deeply disappointed and saddened” at the decision that has “reinforced the notion that gay rights must trump everything else.”
They have said that they have been the victims of an ongoing hate campaign, including threats and abusive phone calls and emails, vandalism of their home and car. The Christian Institute reports that wheel nuts were removed from the couple’s car “and recently a dead rabbit was nailed to their fence”. The website of the business was recently hacked and replaced with pornography.
Mrs. Bull told the Christian Institute in September that they had no choice but to sell their business, having gone hungry and without heating last winter in their struggle to make mortgage payments.
“We’re just ordinary Christians who believe in the importance of marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” Mrs. Bull said in a statement after the verdict.
(http://www.lifesitenews.com/images/sized/images/news/Bulls-240x158.png)
Peter and Hazelmary Bull following the Supreme Court ruling.
“Britain ought to be a country of freedom and tolerance, but it seems religious beliefs must play second fiddle to the new orthodoxy of political correctness,” she added. “Somehow, we have got to find a way of allowing different beliefs to coexist in our society.”
The Supreme Court deputy president, Lady Hale, said the Bulls are free to “manifest their religion” but by refusing to allow homosexual men to share a double bed in their establishment, they were breaking the law.
In what has been called the first national test case of the Equality Act’s Sexual Orientation Regulations (SOR) for Christians who hold traditional sexual moral beliefs, the Bulls have lost in every court, starting with the Bristol Crown Court in January 2011.
Moreover, Judge Andrew Rutherford declared in the Bristol Crown Court ruling that in law there is no discernable difference between civil partnership and marriage, a ruling which later helped to pass the Conservative government’s “gay marriage” act.
The legal action has had a huge impact on the Bulls’ lives. In addition to being fined £3,600 for the “hurt and embarrassment” felt by the complainants, Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy, the Bulls were ordered to pay the latter’s legal expenses.
The Bulls have failed in their efforts to find a way to continue their business enterprise while living their beliefs. The Government’s tourism board for England struck the Bulls’ B&B off their approved list of guesthouses and homosexualist groups and publications have enacted a boycott.
They tried to turn their guesthouse into a non-profit, Christian-only retreat centre, but have recently announced that their legal fight has been so costly they have no choice but to sell their home. They have operated their business for 25 years and have always made their policy known to guests.
Hazelmary Bull has described their situation as exemplifying the ongoing marginalization of Christianity in Britain. With these kinds of rulings, she said, it is clear that “some people are more equal than others.”
Mrs. Bull told the Christian Institute in September, that they came to the decision to sell as “a gradual process”. “We just noticed more and more that we couldn’t make the mortgage repayments” she said.
“Last winter was terrible. We were actually shivering and were hungry. We are coming towards next winter and dreading it. In 2013, two people who worked all their lives at this have ended up cold and hungry. It’s not right.”
She described the loss of their home and business as being like a “death in the family”. “I never thought it would end like this. We are not facing the future with any real enthusiasm.”
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Sometimes I am ashamed of my country. This is what I fought and bled and lost friends for?
bleep that.
Couple is homosexual - I really don't give a crap. Shame the tolerance doesn't go both ways.
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The elderly couple said they were “deeply disappointed and saddened” at the decision that has “reinforced the notion that gay rights must trump everything else.”
This is what stood out for me as this is happening everywhere...
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This is what stood out for me as this is happening everywhere...
You know - I really wish, desperately, that I could argue with you. I can't.
Most on the homosexual couples I know want what everyone else does - just to be left alone. Guess we'd not be friends if they were these shrill and entitled sods.
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It won't be long before they're imprisoned for opposing the homosexual mafia.
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Sometimes I am ashamed of my country. This is what I fought and bled and lost friends for?
bleep that.
Couple is homosexual - I really don't give a crap. Shame the tolerance doesn't go both ways.
Stateside here is one example
Baker Who Lost Shop After Refusing Gay Couple’s Wedding Cake Has Surprise Reaction to Ongoing Attacks: ‘My Eternal Home Is What Matters’ (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/05/burn-in-hell-you-racist-pigs-christian-baker-who-refused-to-make-lesbian-couples-wedding-cake-details-creepy-alleged-break-in-ongoing-challenges/)
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I just don't know anymore. **nononono*
If the situation was reversed, that would be classed as a hate crime.
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What Conservatives and many Christians refuse to understand is selling/closing businesses can be as liberating. Shut your business down. Take your money and have a long vacation.
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What Conservatives and many Christians refuse to understand is selling/closing businesses can be as liberating. Shut your business down. Take your money and have a long vacation.
Yeah when they are ready and want to do this, not when they are forced to by mounting legal bills.
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Sometimes I am ashamed of my country. This is what I fought and bled and lost friends for?
bleep that.
Couple is homosexual - I really don't give a crap. Shame the tolerance doesn't go both ways.
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......................................
If you will just read the article, you will find in the first sentence that this took place in Great Britain.
That is all.
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uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......................................
If you will just read the article, you will find in the first sentence that this took place in Great Britain.
That is all.
^-^
Chief - what I said. I am ashamed of my country.
I'm English. :whistle:
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What Conservatives and many Christians refuse to understand is selling/closing businesses can be as liberating. Shut your business down. Take your money and have a long vacation.
With every setback, there is an opportunity. Believe it.
If I were them, I would set up the B&B as a private club. With membership background checks (because of 'the children') and initiation fees.
Hell, the government has provided them publicity that MILLIONS of $$$ couldn't buy.
This way, they can simply have wedding receptions as 'privately catered affairs' among members.
It's like bending over and picking up money. :laugh:
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Chief - what I said. I am ashamed of my country.
I'm English. :whistle:
:beer: :patriot:
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With every setback, there is an opportunity. Believe it.
If I were them, I would set up the B&B as a private club. With membership background checks (because of 'the children') and initiation fees.
Hell, the government has provided them publicity that MILLIONS of $$$ couldn't buy.
This way, they can simply have wedding receptions as 'privately catered affairs' among members.
It's like bending over and picking up money. :laugh:
I agree with that. It's something I thought when the tobacco nazis started their sh/t.
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With every setback, there is an opportunity. Believe it.
If I were them, I would set up the B&B as a private club. With membership background checks (because of 'the children') and initiation fees.
Hell, the government has provided them publicity that MILLIONS of $$$ couldn't buy.
This way, they can simply have wedding receptions as 'privately catered affairs' among members.
It's like bending over and picking up money. :laugh:
As I understand it, "clubs" were used, still may be, to get around liquor laws and restrictions, in several states.
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As I understand it, "clubs" were used, still may be, to get around liquor laws and restrictions, in several states.
Heck....I'd become the Johnny Cochran of Bed and Breakfasts! :silly:
Find interested Christian-owned B&Bs and make it a win-win.
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Heck....I'd become the Johnny Cochran of Bed and Breakfasts! :silly:
Find interested Christian-owned B&Bs and make it a win-win.
That would work very well over here. There are loads of church groups that hit the various cathedrals and holy sites.
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With these kinds of rulings, she said, it is clear that “some people are more equal than others.”
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With these kinds of rulings, she said, it is clear that “some people are more equal than others.”
George Orwell must be mortified that his fiction has become our reality.
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George Orwell must be mortified that his fiction has become our reality.
I'm quite sure that while he wrote the book as fiction....he was quite satisfied in his own mind that what he wrote would someday become reality if continued unabated.
Therefore, "mortified" is not the word to use here. "Smug" comes to mind.
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I'm quite sure that while he wrote the book as fiction....he was quite satisfied in his own mind that what he wrote would someday become reality if continued unabated.
Therefore, "mortified" is not the word to use here. "Smug" comes to mind.
I don't think Orwell would ever be smug about his fiction becoming fact. Even if he believed it would ultimately come true, I think he would still be sorely disappointed in humanity that it did come true.
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Fact: In California real estate practice, we are warned to NOT use descriptions like "walk to beach" lest we open ourselves up to lawsuits from disabled people that can't walk.
So you use the factual portrayal of 3 blocks to beach, and let them decide if they can walk that distance.