End Times and Current Events

Persecution builds against Christian T-shirt company
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=1568022

It appears the school district in Lexington Kentucky has decided to join forces with community homosexuals who are angry that a Christian company does not want to do business with them.

The homosexuals accused the company, Hands on Originals, of discrimination after the owners said they would not produce T-shirts for them to wear in the city's upcoming gay pride festival.

Now, according to the Associated Press, the Lexington school district has temporarily halted purchases from the company and both the city and University of Kentucky are reconsidering whether to use the company in the future.

On Monday, the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization filed a discrimination complaint with the city's Human Rights Commission. The group alleged that Hands On Originals had submitted a bid to produce T-shirts for the festival but, upon being told it had been selected, refused to fill the order because it said it's "a Christian organization."

Hands On Originals co-owner Blaine Adamson issued a statement Monday, saying "it is the prerogative of the company to refuse any order that would endorse positions that conflict with the convictions of the ownership."

That prompted criticism from Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, who said, "People don't have patience for this sort of attitude today."

 

Earlier story:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Business/Default.aspx?id=1566622

If the company bidded on the job and won, than refused after learning the details, well thats on that company. They should not have bid on the job. Its not like they didnt know what the festival was going to be about.

Looks to me like the company did in fact honor, or at least make a resonable effort to honor the bid.

We all know what's really going here, or should know what these people are pulling. It's a setup from the start, plain and simple. I't s part of the militant gay movement. They go around attacking through lawsuits claiming discrimination under FEDERAL anti-discrimination laws.

Now what is not being said is just what was presented to be bid on? We know these groups tend to hide their agenda behind misleading group names, to give the impression they aren't gay-biased.

I find it difficult to believe that the t-shirt company knew before they bid that the shirts were for a gay event. I mean why would they do that? Is it like a reverse setup from within the shirt company? Kind of strange.

i didnt read the "earlier story",  :-[ good catch.

Christian Company Does Not Have to Make Gay Pride T-Shirts, Kentucky Appeals Court Rules

A Kentucky-based Christian business does not have to make T-shirts for a gay pride event, declared a three judge panel of the state's court of appeals.

A three judge panel of the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Friday that Hands On Originals could not be forced to make T-shirts for an event its owner was morally opposed to on religious grounds.

The panel upheld an earlier decision from the Fayette Circuit Court in favor of HOO and against an LGBT group and the Lexington Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission.

"Nothing in the fairness ordinance prohibits HOO, a private business, from engaging in viewpoint or message censorship," read the panel's decision.

"Thus, although the menu of services HOO provides to the public is accordingly limited, and censors certain points of view, it is the same limited menu HOO offers to every customer and is not, therefore, prohibited by the fairness ordinance."

In his dissent, Judge Jeff Taylor concluded that HOO had indeed violated the local ordinance and thus engaged in unlawful discrimination against homosexuals by refusing to print the shirts.

"The facts in this case clearly establish that HOO's conduct, the refusal to print the t-shirts, was based upon gays and lesbians promoting a gay pride festival in Lexington, which violated the Fairness Ordinance," argued Taylor.

"Finally, it is important to note that the speech that HOO sought to censor was not obscene or defamatory. There was nothing obnoxious, inflammatory, false, or even pornographic that GLSO wanted to place on their t-shirts which would justify restricting their speech under the First Amendment."

In 2012, Gay and Lesbian Services Organization asked Hands On Originals to make t-shirts for their gay pride event in Lexington.

The company refused to do the order, citing their religious objections to homosexuality and the concern that by making the shirts they were in effect endorsing the event.

Hands On Originals was sued and in 2014 found guilty of discrimination by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission.

In April 2015, Fayette Circuit Court Judge James D. Ishmael Jr. overturned the Human Rights Commission's ruling, arguing that Hands On Originals did have a right to refuse the order.

"The Commission in its oral argument says it is not trying to infringe on the Constitutional Rights of HOO its owners but is seeking only to have HOO ' ... treat everyone the same.' Yet, HOO has demonstrated in this record that it has done just that," wrote Judge Ishmael in 2015.

"It has treated homosexual and heterosexual groups the same. In 2010, 2011 and 2012, HOO declined to print at least thirteen (13) orders for message based reasons. Those print orders that were refused by HOO included shirts promoting a strip club, pens promoting a sexually explicit video, and shirts containing a violence related message."

Regarding the Circuit Court's decision, the Washington, DC-based Family Research Council heralded the decision as a victory for religious liberty.

"This ruling affirms our nation's long history of protecting Americans from being compelled by the government to advocate a message to which one objects," stated FRC President Tony Perkins on Friday.

"We hope to hear soon that the U.S. Supreme Court will accept the Masterpiece Cakeshop case and ensure that the owner, Jack Phillips, will be free to follow his religious beliefs without fear of punishment by the government."

http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-company-does-not-have-to-make-gay-pride-t-shirts-kentucky-appeals-court-rules-183406/