A same-sex couple was left outraged after they were turned away by wedding venue owners because of their sexual orientation.
As 24-year-old Sasha-Lee Heekes and 25-year-old Megan Watling from South Africa claimed, the popular Cape Town venue called Beloftebos told them they wouldn’t host their ceremony because they believe marriage to be “between couples of the same gender.”
“Based on our beliefs, we do not host weddings between couples of the same gender,” the e-mail explanation sent to the couple read.
According to Andries and Coia de Villiers, the owners of the venue, they aren’t homophobic but do not wish to allow gay marriages at their location because they fear “eternal consequences” doing so may lead to.
After the upsetting exchange between the venue owners and the young couple, Megan took to Facebook to share her story.
“At first I cried, but then I was overwhelmed with anger. How, in 2020, is this still a reality? Same-sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since 2006, but yet people still believe that they can justify hate and bigotry and quote a God that I don’t believe would stand for said hate and bigotry,” she wrote in a lengthy post.
“We do not ask that anyone approves or even accepts our love, but we do deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, just like anyone else.
“I implore that you do not support businesses that do not believe that love comes in all shapes and sizes.”
Joining Megan’s online rant was also her partner Sasha-Lee who wrote: “The truth is although our Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, affords us the inalienable right to be treated with equality and human dignity, this is not the reality.”
Despite the backlash from the LGBT community, however, the Beloftebos owners insist they “seek to honor and obey God in everything we do.”
“While the venue is available to people of all race, our Biblical conviction is that marriage is reserved for a life-long commitment between one man and one woman,” their statement read.
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Replaced!