Christian photographers fined $6638 for refusing to take pictures of lesbian commitment ceremony...
From "New Developments on Photographers' Religious Rights" posted 4/10/08 at Family Research Council
In New Mexico, religious rights can disappear in a flash, and no one has learned that painful lesson better than Elane Photography. The company, a Christian husband-and-wife team named Huguenin, has become the latest victims of religious intolerance at the hands of the state of New Mexico for refusing to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony.
When a lesbian couple tried to hire the owners for their "wedding," Elaine and her husband declined, saying that the ceremony violated their moral beliefs. To get even, the women filed a complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, alleging that the couple discriminated against them. They asked the commission to issue an injunction that would ban the company from ever rejecting a contract based on a client's sexual preferences.
Yesterday, the commission charged Elane Photography with "sexual orientation discrimination" and ordered the couple to pay $6,637.94 in attorneys' fees to the lesbians who filed the suit. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), who represented the photographers, called the ruling "a stunning disregard" of the First Amendment.
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Is the First Amendment strong enough to protect our religious freedom?
Not in the hands of men who recognize no authority higher than themselves...
