The owner of Annapolis’ iconic old-fashioned trolleys that are often synonymous with the city’s wedding scene, said he is abandoning the wedding industry, rather than be forced to serve same-sex couples when Marylard’s marriage equality law takes effect next month.
Matt Grubbs, owner of Discover Annapolis Tours, said he refuses to compromise his Christian convictions, and has urged prospective clients to lobby state lawmakers for a religious exemption for wedding vendors, reported The Baltimore Sun.
Grubbs said he has no choice but to walk away from $50,000 in annual revenue, because state law prohibits him from discriminating against gays.
“If they’re providing services to the public, they can’t discriminate who they provide their services to,” said Glendora Hughes, general counsel for the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights; the commission enforces the public accommodation laws that prohibit businesses from discriminating on the basis of race, sexual orientation and other characteristics.
Grubbs has refused interviews, but confirmed that he sent an email last month to Chris Belkot, a prospective client, in which he said “we used to do weddings until recently. But we’re a Christian-owned business, and we are not able to lend support to gay marriages. And as a public accommodation, we cannot discriminate between gay or straight couples, so we had to stop doing all wedding transportation.”
“The law exempts my minister from doing same-sex weddings, and the Knights of Columbus don’t have to rent out their hall for a gay wedding reception, but somehow my religious convictions don’t count for anything,” Grubbs wrote, urging Belkot to lobby lawmakers to “amend the new marriage law to allow an exemption for religious conviction for the layperson in the pew.”
Belkot, surprised by Grubbs’ email, fired off a response that read, in part, “It is your right to run your business any way you see fit, but let’s be honest here, you drive a trolley up and down a street. Not exactly God’s work.”
On November 6, voters in Maryland approved the Civil Marriage Protection Act, giving same-sex couples the right to marry. The law takes effect Jan. 1.
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What self-respecting queen wants to get married on a working tolley rollin’ down the street like any old pimp?
Are you frigging kidding me?
His right, but will be a loss of a ton of money. Our dollars are just as green.
As a Canadian I often shake my head in bewilderment at goings on across the border. :-(
His loss. Maybe someone else will start a trolley business and get that $50,000 a year he is forfieting.
Maryland has been a real pain in the ass about the whole same sex marriage issue.. They make the whole U.S. look bad.
Well he’ll be outta thousands of dollars the stupid biggot..
Dumb move could have brought a lot of money into his business
Boycott time, force them out of business until they crawl.
Fine with me, either treat everyone equally or lose ALL of the cash.
same as businesses in 1950 and 1960 close to avoid serving black people
lmao. He is only punishing himself.
Yes let someone else make the money! Funny because this guy mentions his Christian convictions but I am sure he provided service to people who were married who were not Christian. This is what I find so hypocritical. People and their claim of Christian convictions are a joke. It is just blatant bigotry towards gays and lesbians. It is not religious convictions. Otherwise, he would not serve anyone but a Christian. JOKE!
I wonder how fast the bigots would cry foul, if we treated them the same way?
Disgraceful
Some people just don’t like money.
@Keith Agreed! And us lesbians don’t do trolleys. And if we did, we bring our own hooked to the back of the 4X4 :)
His fault.. However, not every Marylander feels the way he does!!! We may not leas the nation but we won our right!!
I’m with you Karen!
The old goat….
While it’s certainly his right to do so, it’s a shame there are so many bigots like this out there. Fortunately more and more people are realizing that we are not defective, or monsters of some kind. I am hopeful for the future. My nephew is twenty years old and cannot understand why GLBT’s are discriminated against. The next few generations will play a huge role in our achievement of equal rights. They are being raised to ignore color, gender, and sexual orientation.
Well there goes the farm! lol
He shouldn’t get away with this. It is his right but it’s a backhanded way of discriminating. There’s no excuse for that.
Lol They’re afraid we’ll sing The Trolley Song
what an idiot. I hope he goes broke.
He will change his mind when his business is bankrupt. Money isn’t discriminatory.
It’s their right to do that. A stupid business decision though. But it’s perfectly legal. Of course, when it dawns on them that some of their everyday riders may also be H-O-M-O-S-E-X-U-A-L-S they might just decide to go out of business altogether!
How short sighted can one person be?
People shoot themselves in the foot so they can blame us for their failures – reprehensible at best.
hahaha the customer’s response…
I say good riddance to any company that would do that! May you enjoy your new lower earnings!!!!
Quite frankly I think religion should be removed as a protected class in discrimination laws since religious people are the ones doing all the discriminating
Good riddance, don’t let your trolley run over your ass on the way out.
How stupid!
Their choice and their lost revenues.
Fingers crossed you go the hell out of business then.
good, didn’t want my money going to anti equality anyway.
What would happen if they opted out of interracial marriages? Hmmm.
What would happen if they opted out of interracial marriages? Hmmm.
Ok. His call, his loss. Some other smart entrepreneur will pick up any slack. Like walking into a $50,000+ business start-up opportunity. Even banks will loan given that previous history info.
if i ever vist there i just opp out of ridinng there trolley troll would be beter name
I live in Maryland, same sex supporter, christian and this is sum FUCKED UP shit hearing about this trolley business, I would piss on there business
He’ll change his mind in a year or so. Money will trump his belief before long. He’s probably crying about this to his mistress.
What a jerk. Change with the times. Doesn’t the bible say to follow and respect the laws of the land? Doesn’t that trump his supposed religious beliefs that gays are bad?
Gays don’t want to get married on a biggot trolley anyway.
what a pos… id like to slap him
If those are his beliefs then whatever.. Im glad that he HAS to stop ALL marriages. His loss.. Im sure there are plenty of other ppl who will jump at this opportunity.
Bigotted idiot! He’ll soon change his tune when the ready starts running low……
good for him. glad to see that he is treating everyone equally. Hes a idiot business man, but thank you for treating everyone equally!
Moron.
Well that is his right…he may choose to be an ignorant asswipe!
God damn. Where’d he get the idea that gay weddings would ever be as tacky as some hets’? I know we’re not ALL fabulous, but puh-leeze.
Time for a laugh.
Unfortunately, many of the comments are, sadly, ugly. So many people seem stuck on the idea of returning intolerance for intolerance.