A retired British Columbia couple have closed their bed and breakfast as a result of a human rights complaint filed against them when they declined to host a homosexual couple.
“We’ve been harassed so bad we’re not running [the B&B],” explained Lee Molnar to the National Post.
Lee’s wife Susan received a call on June 18, 2009 from Shaun Eadie, who wanted to book a room for himself and his partner Brian Thomas. Susan took the names and booked the room, but was concerned that there were 2 men and only 1 bed. Lee called back and Eadie confirmed that they were a homosexual couple, so Lee cancelled the booking.
Eadie filed his complaint with the Tribunal in July 2009, alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Molnars filed an application to have the case dismissed, but it was denied.
“To allow a gay couple to share a bed in my Christian home would violate my Christian beliefs and would cause me and my wife great distress,” explained Lee Molnar in the application, reports the National Post.
The case was to be presented in Kelowna before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal beginning on Wednesday but it was postponed because the complainants’ lawyer fell ill.
The Molnar’s lawyer, Ron Smith, told the National Post that the Molnars opened their Grand Forks B&B in 2002, after major renovations to their home to set up a separate area and install a jacuzzi for guests.
He explained that they felt the need to shut down the operation in the fall of 2009 out of fear that they would receive another request from a homosexual couple. “They don’t know what kind of behaviour they can say no to in their home,” Smith told the National Post. “They don’t want another human-rights complaint [filed against them].”
“They’re just a retired couple in Grand Forks who thought they would open their home to guests and here they are in the centre of a firestorm,” he said. “They’re a lovely couple. They don’t want to be thought of as discriminating, but they’re Christians who don’t feel they can violate their religious beliefs.”
Gwen Landolt, a lawyer and National Vice President for REAL Women Canada, said this case indicates “the relentless pursuit by homosexual activists to impose their values – not just to be tolerated, but to demand that society adapt to their values.”
Some would argue that closing one’s doors to homosexuals violates the Christian’s duty to welcome the stranger, but according to Landolt giving a homosexual couple a room at one’s bed & breakfast would actually put a stamp on their behaviour. “It would be approving something that their faith says is wrong,” she explained. “It would be looking the other way. It would be contrary to their faith and their religious belief.”
Landolt was strongly critical of the human rights tribunals, saying they are “totally intolerant” and “reigning like mad emperors or empresses.” The tribunals, she said, are “ruling not based on logic, common sense, or compassion, but based on the fact that they have the power.”
“Why must Christians put aside their faith in order to accommodate homosexuals?”