Is Supreme Court's "Gay Wedding" Case Built on a Lie? Man at Center of Story is Married to a Woman

The Supreme Court has now ruled that Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act would violate a Christian business owner's First Amendment rights by not allowing her to discriminate against same-sex couples and potentially compelling her to create websites "celebrating marriages she does not endorse." Lorie Smith of Colorado filed the lawsuit with help from the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom as part of the group's ongoing attempt to roll back the rights of LGBTQ people. But as reporter Melissa Gira Grant discovered, part of the case may have been built on a lie. Smith has never actually built a wedding website; the lone request Smith claims to have received from a gay couple supposedly originated with a straight man in another state who told Grant he had never asked for a website and that he has been married to a woman for many years. "He had no idea that his information was in this case," says Grant, who wrote about the case for _The New Republic_.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

Support independent media

Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest