Anti-Gay Email Sparks Furor with Houston Landscaper

According to a Reuters report, Houston-based firm Garden Guy sent an e-mail on October 18 turning down a prospective customer by saying: “I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work for homosexuals.”

The recipient, Michael Lord, forwarded the e-mail to dozens of friends and it spread across the Internet.

Garden Guy co-owner Sabrina Farber seems to be offended that Mr. Lord didn’t feel compelled to keep her behavior secret. “When we sent (the e-mail) we intended it for the client. We did not intend it to be some sweeping political statement for the world. That’s it,” she said.

She goes on to say, “We felt that it was our right as an American small business to choose who we do business with.” Guess what, I completely agree with her, but she has to, in turn, respect Mr. Lord’s right to let anyone he wants know of how he was treated by this business. It happens to cut both ways, and it seems it’s always the Am-Taliban that thinks they have a long laundry list of rights that don’t extend to everyone else.

This should come as no surprise, their website says they also do work in Sugar Land…home to disgraced House leader Tom Delay.

Go on Sabrina, please, by all means, here in America pick and choose your clients. I’ll defend your right to do so as a matter of free speech. Just remember, the rest of us get the same right to free speech. We get to let the world know what we think of you too. Grow up.

B. John

B. John Masters writes about democracy, moral responsibility, and everyday Stoicism at deep.mastersfamily.org. A lifelong United Methodist committed to social justice, he explores how faith, ethics, and civic life intersect—and how ordinary people can live out justice, mercy, and truth in public life. A records and information management expert, Masters has lived in the Piedmont,NC, Dayton, OH, Greensboro, NC and Tampa, FL, and is a proud Appalachian State Alum.

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