When LaKambria S. Welch drove to Boone’s Camp Event Hall on Saturday, she was in search of an explanation.
Welch told The Washington Post in an email that her brother and his fiancee had recently been coordinating with the wedding venue in Booneville, Miss., about hosting their upcoming nuptials until they were informed that they were no longer welcome.
Why? Welch said it’s because her brother is black and his bride-to-be is white.
In a now-viral video shared to social media by Welch over the weekend, a woman identified as the event hall’s owner can be seen telling the 24-year-old, “First of all, we don’t do gay weddings or mixed race … because of our Christian race, I mean, our Christian belief.”
In the video, Welch explains to a soft-spoken woman in a gray T-shirt that her family is Christian. “So what in the Bible tells you that …” Welch begins to ask, before the woman interrupts, saying, “Well, I don’t want to argue my faith.”
The woman continues: “We just don’t participate. We just choose not to.”
“Okay, so that’s your Christian belief right?” Welch presses.
“Yes, ma’am,” the woman responds.
In 2016, Mississippi passed the first law of its kind that protects “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions” about same-sex marriages, extramarital sex and people who identify as transgender. The law, however, does not mention race. Read more via Washington Post
NEW: A Mississippi venue allegedly cancelled a couple's wedding plans after discovering the couple was a black man + a white woman.
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) September 1, 2019
"We don’t do gay weddings or mixed race, because of our Christian race—I mean, our Christian belief," a woman says.
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