Lesbian wedding – Original photo: Sofia Hernandez via Unsplash
In a surprising act of compassion and goodwill, a lesbian couple in Kansas who was turned away from their desired wedding venue has been offered a new venue free of charge.
Ali Waggy, a preschool teacher, and her fiancée Jessica Robinson, who works in merchandising at Sam’s Club, had hoped to marry at the Barn at Grace Hill, in Newton, Kansas.
Waggy had always imagined holding her dream wedding at the picturesque venue. Following a tour they took earlier this month, she and Robinson were ready to put down a deposit to book the space.
Just hours after taking the tour, Waggy received an e-mail from Amanda Balzer, the venue’s co-owner, who said she wanted to let the couple “know who we are and where our heart is,” reports the Wichita Eagle. “[O]ur deeply held religious belief keeps us from celebrating anything but marriage between a man and woman.”
“I just started crying hysterically,” Waggy told the Eagle. “It was pretty awful and heart-crushing.”
She subsequently posted about the encounter on Facebook on January 8, including a screenshot of Balzer’s e-mail.
“Imagine going to your dream wedding venue with your fiancé (sic), kids, & parents. A venue you’ve been emailing back and forth with for months now & you finally get to see it in person. Seeing it, falling even more in love with it, deciding it’s it,” Waggy wrote. “Your parents coming over & making lists, coming up with plans & then when you email them one last question before asking for a contract; not the person you’ve been emailing, but the owner responds like this:
“Basically, ‘it’s illegal for me to tell you you can’t use it; so you can. We will take your money, but we’re not going to celebrate your marriage & want to make sure you know that,’ not to mention we were going to hire them as our wedding coordinator too,” she added. “I’ve cried all night… People suck.”
The post garnered attention online, receiving more than 800 reactions, more than 800 comments, and was shared more than 600 times. The controversy also garnered attention from local news outlets.
Waggy and Robinson received a flood of positive messages supporting them, including a number of venues that reached out to them hoping to host their wedding.
One of those places, Heritage Meadow Estate, which is currently under construction in Derby, Kansas, offered to host the wedding — at no charge, on the date already picked by Waggy and Robinson.
In a subsequent Facebook post, Waggy praised Heritage Meadow Estate and its owner, Joy Amore-Bishop, for the offer, expressing her gratitude.
“Jess & I have witnessed comments & remarks from some of the most cruel, judgmental, close-minded people,” she wrote, referring to some of the negative reactions to her post. “But for every one of those hateful things that have been said, there have been a flood of caring, compassionate, & supportive people reaching out, sharing our post, & reminding us that we belong just as much as everybody else does.”
Speaking with Wichita ABC affiliate KAKE, Amore-Bishop said she wanted her gesture to “overshadow any kind of negativity that they may have felt in the beginning.”
“Honestly, it was like my mama bear heart that just wanted to wrap her in a hug and make her know that not everybody feels that way,” Amore-Bishop said.
Waggy and Robinson are scheduled to be married in the summer of 2025.
“It feels even better that we get to get married somewhere where somebody, the owners like love us and support us and welcome us,” Waggy told KAKE. “And [Amore-Bishop]’s like going out of her way to make us feel like… good.”
Grindr, the gay hookup app for men seeking sex with men, reportedly prevents users from adding "no Zionists" to their profile.
404 Media first reported that several users who tried to add "no Zionists" to their profiles were blocked from doing so. Those users were likely signaling opposition to Israel's military campaign in Gaza or expressing support for the Palestinian cause.
When 404 Media reporter Samantha Cole tried adding "No Zionists" to a new Grindr account, she received an error message reading, "The following are not allowed: no zionist, no zionists" -- the same message reported by users who had tipped her off.
The former Kentucky clerk -- and anti-LGBTQ culture warrior -- who went to jail rather than issue licenses to same-sex couples is now targeting the landmark 2015 ruling.
A decade after catapulting to right-wing stardom, Kim Davis -- the former Rowan County, Kentucky county clerk who chose jail over issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2015 decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide.
Represented by the anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel, Davis has formally asked the nation’s highest court to strip away the right of same-sex couples to marry.
A Mike Huckabee acolyte and four-time married fundamentalist zealot, Davis rose to fame in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to any couple -- gay or straight -- after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision struck down all state-level bans on same-sex marriage, including Kentucky’s. Ordered to comply, she instead spent six days in jail for contempt of court.
Baylor University, a Baptist college in Waco, Texas, is rescinding a $643,000 grant it received to study the inclusion of LGBTQ people and women in the church.
The grant, awarded to Baylor’s Center for Church and Community Impact in the School of Social Work, came from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, which funds progressive, faith-related initiatives focused on church-state separation, interfaith projects, and social justice.
The money was intended to "help foster inclusion and belonging in the church" by funding research into "the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations," with the goal of encouraging more inclusive practices.
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