Remember the Arkansas paper that wouldn’t list a deceased man’s gay partner in the obituary because, “We don’t list unmarried couples, in-laws, or pets”? Well, GLAAD has reached out to the paper; the paper will re-write its obituary policy to include gay partners and re-run the obituary and donate the proceeds along with $85 to a cause or organization of the living partner’s choosing.
So now that they’re done there will they head over to Seattle Washington where Access Printed Media refused to print text-only promotional materials for Diesel, a new gay bar in the city’s gay district?
Cienna Madrid from The Seattle Stranger has the deets:
Mike Reis and his partner, Mark Hurst, placed a 2,500-flier order with Kent-based company Access Printed Media, which advertises “business and promotional printing you can rely on.”…
But on Tuesday, they received an email from the printer. “I have some bad news. :/,” wrote Sarah Wheeler, an employee with Access Printed Media. “Not that we’re against homosexuals at all, but because knowing that our printed products will be advertising and promoting the kind of lifestyle that goes against our morals is something that [the owner] can’t bring himself to do… :/”
“We were horrified when we got the email,” says Reis. “I felt sickened, furious, humiliated. Obviously, they do have a problem with homosexuals, but they couldn’t even pick up the phone and call us. You’d expect this kind of close-mindedness somewhere else—out of the state or east of the mountains. Not here.”
Reached by phone today, Wheeler admitted that the Diesel flyers depicted “nothing inflammatory whatsoever.”
Wheeler reiterated that the decision was “nothing against homosexuals themselves. We’re just not morally able to promote that kind of a lifestyle.”
Wheeler says the company has no written document that outlines the business’s moral-related printing policy. She did say they once refused to print an advertisement for a tarot reader. She also declined to tell this reporter more about the printer’s moral code, saying that I “sounded close-minded.” She added, “We’re a small business owned by a small conservative Christian family. I’m sorry but we have values and we can print whatever we want.”
But the ACLU of WA says the printer can’t legally turn down the job. “The print shop’s refusal to provide services violated state law,” states ACLU spokesman Doug Honig. “The Washington Law Against Discrimination… bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and require[s] businesses open to the general public to serve all customers equally. The bar owner can file a complaint with the WA Human Rights Commission. The ACLU would be glad to hear from the bar owner and provide assistance if he wishes to pursue the matter.”
Yesterday the company responded with a message on their now-taken-down website reading:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
If you are directed to this website due to a blog posting about our business, here is “the rest of the story.” The employee sited in the article sent an unauthorized e-mail regarding an inquiry for postcards. This e-mail angered the prospect, and we can understand why. There were unnecessary comments regarding morality in the e-mail. The comments in the e-mail were rude, and would never have been communicated with our authorization. This e-mail led our prospect to forward it to the writer of this article. We didn’t even know about this e-mail until this morning when a reporter called. Please understand, we are a very small business, family owned. We often decline to print jobs, even wedding invitations. Does that mean we are anti-marriage? No, it does not. It just means we do not want to print wedding invitations. The situation you have read about has been grossly exaggerated. Please forgive us for any harm or upset we have caused. We respectfully ask that all inquires to this matter be put to rest. We mean no harm, and we ask that you do not harm us. We only seek to live in peace.
Keep in mind, I don’t want this print shop to go out of business, even if they do equate gay bars with tarot readings. Communities need print shops and it’d suck to deprive the entire Kent area of printing just because they made an offensive and bone-headed move.
That being said, how about having some business sense? First, if you don’t wanna print something say that you cannot take on the job because your press is over-committed. If you wanna be helpful then refer them to another press that does like tarot card readers and bear bars.
Second, once the anger starts, don’t write something on your blog asking people to leave you alone. Say that you’ve reprimanded the fuck out of that employee and that you support the entire community and that you’re drafting an official policy to make sure this never happens again.
Then, send the bar an apology along with a promise to do some small free printing for them and then give a small donation to an LGBT organization. See? Easy. But nooooooo… Access Media Printing had to get all fussy about it and now they have two choices: do the public penance with GLAAD or hope that this story fades quickly.
Elloreigh
This is EXACTLY the kind of anti-gay discrimination that New York lawmakers are rumored to be considering exemptions for as part of passing a bill to legally recognize same-sex couples’ marriages in that state.
Shannon1981
@Elloreigh: I hope that it only extends to tax exempt religious organizations. If it goes further, there will be problems. Don’t wanna give business to bigots, ever, but said bigots need to realize that their bigotry does not exempt them from abiding by the law.
TMikel
No church should be required to perform any marriage ceremony for anyone. What marriage equality means is civil marriage not religious sanction. I hate to keep pointing this out but in Europe one always has a civil ceremony and possibly a religious one. In this benighted country, when the minister says, by the power invested in me by the state of ________, he or she is doing the civil sanction. So let those churches that don’t want to perform marriages for same sex couples refrain from doing so. We don’t NEED them for civil acknowledgement and there are plenty of churches that will perform the ceremonies.
chrissypoo
@TMikel
Really?
You can’t be that stupid can you?
In none of the marriage equality laws passed does it require churches to perform. You obviously don’t understand US Marriage laws or that marriage can be both a civil ceremony or a religious ceremony.
MikeE
@chrissypoo: marriage is a civil issue. it has nothing whatsoever to do with churches. when a minister or priest performs a marriage they are doing so in the name of the state. all of the rights and obligations that come with marriage are related to state-controlled issues (taxes, inheritance, etc..).
If marriage were only a religious issue, then there would be no legal advantages to be married. it would be something entirely symbolic with absolutely no fiscal consequences. this is not the case.
in countries where there is marriage equality, you CAN get married in a church if that denomination supports same-sex union. however, the presiding minister/priest, is acting as an agent of the state. they fill out governmental forms. they require signatures on documents that are deposited with the state.
marriage is a civil ceremony. it can take place at city hall, at a park, in a zoo.. or in a church.
“holy matrimony” is a religious observance. it happens in a church and only has any significance to that church. otherwise, it is entirely meaningless. if the minister/priest does not file legal documents with the state regarding the proceeding, then the marriage has no legal effect. it has, in effect, the exact same legal weight as a baptism, or a catholic confirmation… in other words: none whatsoever.
two entirely different and completely separate issues here: “church wedding” and “marriage”. one is a symbolic ceremony that only has significance within the confines of whatever denomination performed the ritual. the other is a legal document, that has state sanction, that bears legal responsibilities and fiscal advantages.
don’t confuse the two.
MikeE
just to add: if a Catholic priest stopped the ceremony at “I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride”, you all realize that the couple would NOT be legally married. The couple are not legally married until the legal papers are signed. Everything that happens up to the signing of those papers is nothing but symbolic ritual, it means nothing other than whatever you want to put into a ritual ceremony.
If you wanted, you could have a marriage in a church where the priest says “ooga-booga” 100 times, followed by “I now pronounce you married”… but until you sign state-sanctioned papers, you ain’t married.
All the pomp and circumstance you add are nothing but eye candy, in the end. The actual event that makes you a married couple is the signing of the state document.
Joseph
” Communities need print shops and it’d suck to deprive the entire Kent area of printing just because they made an offensive and bone-headed move.”
They’re already being deprived of printing… this place doesn’t print signs for tarot readers, gay bars, or even WEDDINGS for crying out loud. It sounds like they flip a coin or use a Magic 8 ball to decide what they’ll print – although how a small business can afford to turn down a job in this economy is beyond me as well.
BobBrown
Hide the fact that you are discriminating against us and it will be OK? I mean granted it would be the smart thing for them to do but you offer it as advice to homophobes?