Christian wedding photographer who refused to photograph same-sex weddings loses court case
Dec 28, 2021
Alex Baker
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
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A Christian wedding photographer who refused to photograph same-sex marriages has had her case dismissed. The photographer, Emilee Carpenter argued that the non-discrimination laws violated her rights to express her religious beliefs.
Carpenter filed the lawsuit in April of 2021 claiming that New York’s nondiscrimination laws were forcing her to choose between going against her faith by photographing same-sex weddings and paying fines of up to $100,000.
Carpenter argued that the laws violated her 1st and 14th amendment rights. After being asked to photograph seven same-sex weddings she sued the state.
“Just as the government cannot compel a lesbian baker to create a cake condemning same-sex marriage or an atheist playwright to wax positively about God, New York cannot force Emilee to convey messages she objects to,” the lawsuit said.
But U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. dismissed Carpenter’s case saying that ‘the court is not persuaded, ruling that withholding Carpenters services would “relegate [same-sex couples] to an inferior market than that enjoyed by the public at large”.
New York Attorney General James tweeted that the dismissal was a major victory and that her office “will always fight to ensure that every New Yorker is treated equally under the law across our entire state.”
In a major victory, a judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by an Elmira wedding photographer who refused to photograph same-sex marriages.
My office will always fight to ensure that every New Yorker is treated equally under the law across our entire state.— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) December 16, 2021
This is of course not the first time that a wedding photographer or videographer has found themselves in such a situation where their religious beliefs contradict the state laws. Fundamentally refusing a service based on somebody’s race, gender or sexual orientation is discrimination and these rules exist to help protect LGBTQ+ people from such discrimination.
[Via NBC News]
Alex Baker
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
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13 responses to “Christian wedding photographer who refused to photograph same-sex weddings loses court case”
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get the story right… In the first paragraph you state “A Christian wedding photographer who refused to photograph same-sex marriages has had her case dismissed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.” The New York Attorney General did not and can not “dismiss” any case. No attorney general can. Dismissal of any legal claim is an action reserved solely and specifically for the courts.
Does anyone really want someone providing services at their wedding, who doesn’t want to be there and is probably angry about the whole thing?
Don’t use the law to force someone to photograph or cater your wedding if they don’t want to.,
The LGBQT cause seeks out these situations to promote “awareness”. They want to denigrate Christianity and faith while promoting “progressive values”. They live for cases like this.
Yes, homosexuals do.
Freedom rules broken now. G+ is enforced by law. Jesus! For sake of their extra choice, they would take my freedom.
People surely should be empowered to express the way they feel and and marry who they please in order to live a life that offers fulfilment. The other side of the coin is that people who are uncomfortable with that, for whatever reason, should also be empowered to feel the way they feel and not, as in this case, be forced to provide photographic services.
Okay – you have to read the pleading and the decision… This was an attempted pre-emptive strike as Carpenter has had several same-sex wedding inquiries she had not responded to. In the pleading she admits she has no problem working with the LGBTQ community, stipulates the New York Public Accommodation law applies to her business, cites no provable damages to her business AND REQUESTS NO RELIEF FROM THE COURT (see pg. 46 of the judge’s decision). The last photographer who tried this dropped the case when he realized how far up the same creek he was without anything that resembled a paddle.
Thanks Don. That actually makes a lot of sense. And had this info been included in the post it probably wouldn’t have been worth posting.
If she’s allowed to discriminate, it would just lead to more violations.
The law is not to be cherry-picked for anyone’s agenda.
The hypocrisy is so blantant. On one hand you have people telling society to not force them to carry an unwanted child, or get an unwanted vaccine, or not tell people who they can or cannot have sex with, all the while wanting to force people to perform an undesired service (by them) all in the name of equality. Either be consistent, or get off the bus. You can’t have it both ways. It’s either discriminatory or it’s not. You can’t play your hand with hypocrisy.
Okay, I am not a professional photographer, but I am interested in the subject enough to know that certain photographers use different methods to express their “artistic” flair. Why couldn’t this photographer just take “artistic photos” that the couple would hate? Take their money and give them crappy shots. Is there a legal reason she couldn’t do that? Once again, asking as a non-pro.
If the photographer performed poorly, the couple would likely leave a negative review for the photographer which would affect their future bookings.
I tried to think of something to say here but came up empty other than saying Waa. There are so many ways to not take a client. As someone else on here has pointed out, it is one side or the other wanting to make a point about beliefs or issues. Next.