A senior lesbian married couple in Missouri have been turned away by a senior housing community because of the couple’s sexual orientation.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting on a new law suit filed by Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, who have been denied housing by the Friendship Village senior living community because they are married to each other.
The couple, who have been together for almost four decades and legally married since 2009, had toured the Sunset Hills location several times and even put down a $2,000 deposit.
According to the lawsuit, the couple were denied housing because their same-sex relationship violated Friendship Village’s cohabitation policy that views marriage as “the union of one man and one woman, as marriage is understood in the Bible.”
The Post Dispatch received a statement from Friendship Village which read: “We have just been made aware of a lawsuit that we have not yet seen and have not had an opportunity to review. This matter will be discussed with legal counsel and (we) have no further comment at this time.”
Nance and Walsh are being represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the ACLU and Washington-based law firm of Relman, Dane & Colfax.
The couple’s legal team says the policy violates the Fair Housing Act in terms of sex discrimination. Since the women are married to females, not men, the decision to deny them occupancy is, in essence, discrimination based on their sex.
“Mary and Bev were denied housing for one reason and one reason only — because they were married to each other rather than to men. This is exactly the type of sex discrimination the Fair Housing Act prohibits,” said Julie Wilensky, an attorney for the NCLR, said in a statement to the press. “Their story demonstrates the kind of exclusion and discrimination still facing same-sex couples of all ages.”
The couple attempted to move into Friendship Village in 2016. After multiple visits and several conversations with the staff they put down a $2,000 deposit in order to get on a waiting list. It was only after that they were informed of the “longstanding” policy on cohabitation.
The Friendship Village website says it is a nonprofit that provides “a fulfilling, worry-free lifestyle” to more than 1,000 seniors in Chesterfield and Sunset Hills. Its mission statement says, “Guided by Biblical values, continually serve the senior community with quality offerings that promote lifelong well-being.”
Walsh and Nance considered other housing but said Friendship Village was the only place in the St. Louis area “that can provide increased levels of care without an increased monthly cost to residents.”
According to the lawsuit, a letter to Walsh dated July 29, 2016, from Michael Heselbarth, a top administrator with the retirement village, said: “ Your request to share a single unit does not fall within the categories permitted by the long-standing policy of Friendship Village Sunset Hills.”
Legal experts are divided on the possibility of winning the lawsuit.
Anders Walker, a constitutional law professor at St. Louis University, told the Post-Dispatch, “My gut instinct is they’re probably out of luck.”
“When a private body doesn’t want to rent a room to you, for them, that’s freedom of association,” he added. “They’re probably entitled to their deposit back.”
But Marcia McCormick, an employment and labor law expert, says Friendship Village’s religious freedom claim “does have to be sincere. The defense of the First Amendment does not excuse discrimination in the Fair Housing Law.”
Attorney General Josh Hawley on Friday released his office’s annual Vehicle Stops Report. The “disparity index” comparing traffic stops among races showed a jump from last year, when blacks were 75 percent more likely than whites to be stopped. Until now, last year’s percentage had been the highest since the reports began in 2000.
John Gaskin, spokesman for the St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP, said the numbers are shocking.
“Quite frankly, it’s really deplorable,” Gaskin said. “It’s why we’ve ended up in a situation where people are talking about travel advisories and African-American groups are less likely to come and do business in our state.”
In light of last year’s vehicle stop data and other racial concerns, the NAACP issued a travel warning to the state.
Republican Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has been taken into custody after being indicted on charges of felony invasion of privacy.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s office announced today that a grand jury found probable cause to believe Greitens violated a Missouri statute that makes it a felony if a person transmits the image contained in the photograph or film in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer.
On Jan. 10, the Post-Dispatch and other area media reported that Greitens, a first-term Republican elected in 2016, had had an extramarital affair near the start of that campaign, in 2015.
The allegation was put forward by the husband of Greitens’ lover, based on a surreptitious audio recording he made of a conversation with her.
The woman said in the recording that, during a consensual sexual encounter in Greitens’ St. Louis home in which she was bound and partly undressed, Greitens took a photo of her without her consent and threatened her with it.
A former Navy Seal, Greitens won his 2016 election in part by campaigning against “corrupt career politicians.”
Some Republican lawmakers have called for Greitens resignation.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate for Missouri Courtland Sykes blasted “women’s rights” this week.
In a statement posted to Facebook on Tuesday, Sykes said that he had been asked if he “supports women’s rights.”
“I want to come home to a home cooked dinner every night at six,” Sykes said, referring to demands he makes of his girlfriend. “One that she fixes and one that I expect one day to have daughters learn to fix after they become traditional homemakers and family wives.”
According to Sykes, feminists push an agenda that they “made up to suit their own nasty snake-filled heads.”
The candidate said that he hoped his daughters do not grow up to be “career obsessed banshees who forgo home life and children and the happiness of family to become nail-biting manophobic hell-bent feminist she devils who shriek from the top of a thousand tall buildings they are [SIC] think they could have leaped in a single bound — had men not been ‘suppressing them.’ It’s just nuts.”
Sykes ended his rant by insisting that he supports women’s rights “but not the kind that has suppressed natural womanhood for five long decades.”
Four young people have been arrested in Texas County, Missouri on charges relating to the brutal mutilation and murder of transgender teenager Joseph Steinfeld.
On Monday, 19-year-olds Andrew Vrba and Isis Schauer and 24-year-old Briana Calderas were charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse.
Additionally, James T. Grigsby was arraigned on the charges of abandonment of a corpse and tampering with evidence in a felony case.
Joseph, also known as Joey and Ally, had been reported missing by family.
Steinfeld’s sister, Ashleigh Boswell, told the Springfield News-Leader that Joey had discussed being transgender with the family and contemplated undergoing gender-reassignment surgery some day.
Boswell described Joey was “a very loving, outgoing person” who “didn’t like conflict whatsoever.”
“We honestly don’t understand why they done it,” she added. “It just don’t make any sense.”
From the News-Leader:
When questioned Wednesday, Schauer denied any knowledge of Steinfeld’s whereabouts. She said the teen was last seen leaving a Cabool home after having a physical altercation with Vrba. But after obtaining permission to look at her phone, a sheriff’s deputy saw the Facebook messages.
Schauer told the deputy she couldn’t remember what the conversation was about, but later admitted she was aware of the killing and helped get rid of the body, the probable cause statement said.
Vrba told investigators he had to kill Steinfeld and initially tried to poison the teen, though the probable cause statement didn’t provide a possible motive for the attack. The detective wrote that Vrba then described how he stabbed Steinfeld in the living room of the home.
Vrba said the trio burned Steinfeld’s body, and placed some of the bones into a garbage bag and that the bag was placed in a chicken coop near the residence. The women said Vrba told them he had gouged Steinfeld’s eyes and stabbed the teen in the genitals, and bragged about the killing, the detective wrote.
The detective said Calderas admitted Steinfeld was killed at her home and that she helped burn the body, but that she didn’t want Steinfeld dead. Schauer and Vrba disagreed, saying that Calderas mentioned several days earlier that she wanted Steinfeld to die. Calderas led authorities to the knife used in the killing and Steinfeld’s phone, the detective wrote.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help Steinfeld’s family handle funeral expenses.
Steinfeld is reportedly the 21st transgender person killed in the U.S. this year.
The editorial board of the Kansas City Star calls out state lawmaker Rick Brattin for declaring during a legislative debate that “there is a distinction between homosexuality and just being a human being.”
Look at him. Pretty tells you who he is, doesn’t it?
This is where we thank Hillary Clinton for reintroducing the word “deplorable” into our vocabulary.
Rick Brattin, a Missouri state representative from Harrisonville, seems pretty certain: Homosexuality and humanity are incompatible.
“When you look at the tenets of religion, of the Bible, of the Qur’an, of other religions,” he said Monday, “there is a distinction between homosexuality and just being a human being.”
The statement, made on the Missouri House floor, was deplorable. It betrayed a stunning lack of understanding of theology and self-government: The Constitution protects all Americans from the tyranny of any single faith-based approach to secular law.
We asked Rep. Brattin to explain his statement, but he did not return a phone call to his office.
[snip]
Monday, state lawmakers tried to pass an amendment prohibiting discrimination in the state on the basis of sexual orientation or gender status. In Missouri, you can still be fired because the boss thinks you might be gay.
Brattin made his statement during the debate on that amendment. But it quickly became clear that there were not enough votes to pass the plan, leaving gays and lesbians still unprotected by Missouri’s discrimination law.
That sends exactly the wrong message about tolerance in the state.
It gets worse. After all the amendments were dropped, including the protections for gays and lesbians, the House passed Senate Bill 43, a measure that would actually make it more difficult to sue for discrimination.
The bill is another unnecessary blemish on the state. The legislation’s original sponsor owns a company facing a discrimination lawsuit, making the decision even more questionable.
The bill now sits on Gov. Eric Greitens’ desk.
The governor has made clear his desire to bring new businesses and jobs to Missouri. Supporters say SB 43 is part of an effort to make the state more business-friendly.
But what business wants to operate in a state that tolerates discrimination? Or a state where a representative thinks gays and lesbians are less than human?
The states that grow in the 21st century will be those that show tolerance, acceptance and intelligence. Missouri’s lawmakers are sending a clear signal this state is not any of those things.
The governor should veto the bill. And Brattin should apologize.
• Another day, another lost convention for North Carolina due to anti-LGBT hate law as the American Institute of Architects takes their $1 million in economic impact elsewhere.
• Eighty-six percent of political reporters believe Hillary Clinton will win the presidency.
• Although a million haters have signed a petition boycotting Target over it’s trans-inclusive bathroom policy, the super-store is standing strong it’s position.
• Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, wishes the FBI would speed up it’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
• We all have our inspirations, and for The Randy Report that would be the fab Joe.My.God. which celebrates 12 years of blogging genius for the LGBT community. #MoreWine!
After a historic 39 hour filibuster effort by Democratic state Senators earlier this week, Missouri Republicans have advanced SJR39. The bill would legalize discrimination against LGBTs in the state.
From the Human Rights Campaign:
Similar to so-called “First Amendment Defense Act” legislation introduced in other states, this extreme resolution would lead to a ballot measure that, if approved by voters, would enshrine discrimination against LGBT people and their families into the state constitution. If the House of Representatives passes the resolution, it would go directly to the ballot and the governor would have no opportunity to veto it.
“SJR 39 is an irresponsible and shameful attempt by Missouri lawmakers to put LGBT people and their families in serious danger of even further discrimination,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “The freedom to practice one’s religion is one of the founding principles of our country, but to use it as a means of state-sanctioned discrimination is completely unacceptable. We call on the Missouri House of Representatives to listen to the overwhelming chorus of pro-equality voices outraged by this proposal and reject this attack on LGBT people.”
The bill now moves to the state House of Representatives where Republicans hold a 2-1 majority.
After more than 36 hours of non-stop debate, Republicans who control the Missouri Senate shut down a Democrat-led filibuster of a controversial same-sex marriage proposal early Wednesday.
Republicans used a parliamentary maneuver, known as the previous question, to end the blockade, which had put a national focus on a GOP-sponsored measure to shield clergy, wedding vendors and religious organizations from penalties if they oppose same-sex marriage.
The Senate then voted 23-9 to give the proposal preliminary approval. A final vote is expected Thursday before the measure moves to the House for further action. If approved by the House and Senate, the measure will be sent to the ballot for voter approval.
The record-setting marathon ended with anger from Democratic lawmakers and signs of relief from Republicans with a lack of sleep the only common ground between them.
Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tweeted their support. State Sen. Wendy Davis of Texas — who gained notoriety after her own filibuster in 2013 — also praised the Democrats’ efforts.
Sen. Bob Onder, the sponsor, said the constitutional amendment is necessary so photographers, bakers and others aren’t “commandeered” into participating in same-sex marriages or receptions. The Lake Saint Louis Republican also wants to make sure churches don’t lose any tax benefits they have now if they oppose gay marriage.
If approved by voters, Democrats say it would enshrine discrimination against gays into the state constitution.
