GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — FOX 17 is learning more about a civil infraction filed against a Grand Rapids business that’s accused of discriminating against LGBTQ+ couples.
Tenured West Michigan University Cooley Law School Professor Michael McDaniel shared his thoughts with FOX 17 Thursday about the case between the city of Grand Rapids and the Broadway Avenue, LLC.
City officials announced that they found the wedding venue in violation of a local law that prohibits people from withholding services to others based on sexual orientation.
Broadway Avenue owners, Hannah and Nick Natale, announced that they did not plan to allow same-sex couples to get married at their venue because of their religious beliefs.
READ MORE: GR wedding venue faces civil infraction over policy on LGBTQ couples
“Until they have an actual person or persons who believe that they’ve been discriminated against, I don’t see where they have a case,” explained David Kallman, the attorney for the owners of Broadway Avenue.
Professor McDaniel added that the same ordinance in question protects religious-based discrimination.
“Once that behavior occurs, they have a right to deter it. In this case, they’re saying we are prohibiting any statements or policies that…would be offensive to any of our protective classes,” McDaniel explained to FOX 17 Thursday.
However, McDaniel added that the city’s law includes broad language that does not indicate an individual’s need to come forward in order to prove a case.
He noted that it allows officials to act in a way that prevents discrimination, and that the owners already admitted to their policy.
“The city has said, as a civil matter, if you are going to conduct business within the city of Grand Rapids, providing public accommodation, in this case through a venue, you must do so without discriminating against this particular class and they have already said they’re going to do that,” McDaniel elaborated.
Whether it goes against the owners’ religious rights, McDaniel said that’s an ongoing debate, but, as a public business, their beliefs cannot bear on the goods and services they provide.
“By allowing individuals to carve out their own exceptions to the Human Rights Ordinance, we’ve lost the whole purpose of the Human Rights Ordinance because we are no longer respecting people as individuals and diverse members of our community, but instead, are allowing individuals to make judgements based upon their own viewpoints,” McDaniel added.
The Broadway Avenue must make their first court appearance for the civil infraction by October 17.
Kallman says the couple plans to take this case to the United States Supreme Court, if needed.
