The Mysterious Case of the Fake Gay Marriage Website, the Real Straight Man, and the Supreme Court
Melissa Gira Grant
June 29, 2023
In filings in the 303 Creative v. Elenis case is a supposed request for a gay wedding websitebut the man named in the request says he never filed it.
Long before the Supreme Court took up one of the last remaining cases it will decide this sessionthe 303 Creative v. Elenis case, concerning a Colorado web designer named Lorie Smith who refuses to make websites for same-sex weddings and seeks an exemption from anti-discrimination lawsthere was a couple named Stewart and Mike. According to court filings from the plaintiff, Stewart contacted Smith in September 2016 about his wedding to Mike early next year. He wrote that they would love some design work done for our invites, placenames etc. We might also stretch to a website. Stewart included his phone number, email address, and the URL of his own websitehe was a designer too, the site showed.
This week, I decided to call Stewart and ask him about his inquiry.
The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its opinion in a case in which Stewart plays a minor role, a case that could be, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated by way of a question at oral argument in December, the first time in the Courts history
[that] a commercial business open to the public, serving the public, that it could refuse to serve a customer based on race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation. (Update: On Friday, the court ruled 6-3 in the web designers favor.) It took just a few minutes to reach him. I assumed at least some reporters over the years had contacted him about his website inquiry to 303 Creativehis contact information wasnt redacted in the filing. But my call, he said, was the very first time Ive heard of it.
https://newrepublic.com/article/173987/mysterious-case-fake-gay-marriage-website-real-straight-man-supreme-court
( JCA is all I can say. )
Hermit-The-Prog
(36,270 posts)It only wants to further its christofascist agenda.
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(113,958 posts)K&R