Judge rules against elderly lesbians rejected from retirement home [View all]
Source: NBC News
Judge rules against elderly lesbians rejected from retirement home
Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, were denied an apartment in Missouri's Friendship Village because their marriage is not "understood in the Bible."
Jan. 18, 2019, 10:12 AM EST
By Tim Fitzsimons
A federal court on Wednesday ruled against a lesbian couple who brought a lawsuit against a Missouri retirement home that rejected the women's apartment application because their marriage is not "understood in the Bible." ... Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, married a decade ago in Massachusetts and have been in a committed relationship for roughly 40 years.
When they applied to move into the Friendship Village senior living facility, they did so "because it is in their community, they have friends there, and it offers services that would allow them to stay together there for the rest of their lives," said Julie Wilensky, an attorney representing the couple. ... But once Friendship Village staff found that Nance and Walsh are married, they told the couple that they were not allowed to move in, because the home did not condone homosexuality. The letter they received said that the only married couples they accepted were those in unions between "one man and one woman."
The couple sued, alleging "discrimination on the basis of sex," and their case was finally decided this week by a federal court in Missouri, which found "sexual orientation rather than sex lies at the heart of Plaintiffs' claims." ... LGBTQ groups decried the outcome, and the couple's lawyers said "we disagree with the court's decision, and our clients are considering next steps."
....
Judge Jean C. Hamilton, however, provided a different view of the case's merits. ... "At no time do Plaintiffs assert that had they been men involved in a same-sex relationship or marriage, they would have been admitted as residents in Friendship Village," Hamilton wrote in the court's decision. "Under these circumstances, the Court finds the claims boil down to those of discrimination based on sexual orientation rather than sex alone." ... Hamilton then dismissed the women’s claim, noting that the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Missouri and other Midwestern states, ruled in 1989 that existing federal civil rights law “does not prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.”
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/judge-rules-against-elderly-lesbians-rejected-retirement-home-n960211
Hat tip, Joe.My.God:
Court Rules Against Lesbian Couple In Housing Lawsuit Because Their Marriage "Isn't Understood In The Bible"
https://www.joemygod.com/2019/01/court-rules-against-lesbian-couple-in-housing-lawsuit-because-their-marriage-isnt-understood-in-the-bible/
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