Michigan City Bans Farmer from Farmers Market Because He Opposes Same Sex Marriage

-By Warner Todd Huston

A farmer who lives 20 miles outside the City of East Lansing, Michigan, was just banned from the city’s farmers market because he posted a Facebook post in support of traditional one man/one woman marriage.

Last year, Steve Tennes, who owns a 120-acre farm far outside the city East Lansing city limits, posted a Facebook message opposing gay marriage. He also said he would not host gay wedding ceremonies at his farm. The owners of the farm host birthday parties, weddings and other events on the grounds and they have decided that their religious beliefs preclude them from hosting gay weddings.

But the farmer’s social media post got the city council of East Lansing quite upset, The Daily Signal reports.

So, as a result of the Facebook post, East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows banned Tennes’ Country Mill Orchard from being allowed to participate in the farmers market that it has attended as a seller for the last six years.

East Lansing contacted Tennes last year saying that if he showed up to the last farmers market in August protesters would come to oppose his stance on traditional marriage. But when he arrived to sell his organic apples, peaches, cherries, and pumpkins, not a single protester appeared.

There was no disruption and no problems.

Regardless, Mayor Meadows banned Country Mill Orchard from participating in the farmers market for this year.

Tennes, a Marine veteran, and his wife have now filed a lawsuit against the city for religious discrimination.

My wife Bridget and I volunteered to serve our country in the military to protect freedom, and that is why we feel we have to fight for freedom now, whether it’s Muslims’, Jews’, or Christians’ right to believe and live out those beliefs.

The government shouldn’t be treating some people worse than others because they have different thoughts and ideas.

Mayor Meadows insists that they aren’t attacking the owners of Country Mill Orchard for their religious beliefs. He says it is because they won’t hold weddings for gays and that, he claims, is illegal.

“This is about them operating a business that discriminates against LGBT individuals, and that’s a whole different issue,” Meadows recently exclaimed.

Tennes counters saying that he does not discriminate. In fact, he says he has actually employed members of the LGBTQ community.

The lawsuit says the farm “has employed people from a wide variety of racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds, including members of the LGBT community.”

Tennes and his family believe that the only reason the city is punishing them is because of their religious beliefs. And it is pretty hard to say they are wrong.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, YoungConservatives.com, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.


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