A New Jersey bridal shop that refused to sell a wedding dress to a lesbian bride because she’s a lesbian has now received 391 negative reviews on Yelp, a popular online user-reviews search site. Donna Saber, the manager of the Somers Point shop, “Here Comes the Bride,” reportedly told Alix Genter, who is engaged to be married next July, that she would not sell her a bridal gown because Genter’s pending same-sex marriage was, in Saber’s view, an “illegal action.”
But as out turns out, Saber’s action is the illegal one.
“Like many other states, including California, New York, Illinois, and Colorado, New Jersey bars sexual orientation discrimination in places of public accommodation,” Reuters reports, adding, “Most statutes define public accommodations as places that are open to the public, such as a business, hotel, entertainment venue, restaurant, and doctor’s office.”
Owners, managers and employees of these spaces are generally not permitted to deny, directly or indirectly, any service, benefit or privilege on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation.
“This rule would ostensibly prohibit the bridal shop from denying Alix Genter a wedding dress because she intends to marry another woman.
“Even if the shop’s manager does have a religious objection to the marriage.
“In fact, most courts have found that enforcing these sorts of anti-discrimination laws does not run afoul of a person’s religious rights, and most states only provide an exception for bona fide religious institutions.”
Unfortunately, Yelp has decided it will spare the bridal shop the bad reviews. Looking at the above chart, taken from the Here Comes the Bride’s Yelp page, the store had a five-star rating until its illegal homophobic attack on Genter. And while it’s unclear how many of the 391 one-star reviews are directly related to this incident, it’s safe to say most.
CNET’s Chris Matyszczyk reports, “Yelp’s content guidelines state: “Reviews aren’t the place for rants about a business’s employment practices, political ideologies, extraordinary circumstances, or other matters that don’t address the core of the consumer experience.”
“I contacted Yelp for its opinion on whether these reviews just might address the core of the consumer experience at Here Comes The Anti-Gay Pride.
“Yelp’s Chantelle Karl told me: “While Yelp does not support any sort of discrimination, reviews of businesses on Yelp should be about the customer experience not the views of a business or its employees. This policy is clearly stated on our FAQ. Reviews that go against these guidelines are regularly removed by our Customer Support Team. That said, Yelp DOES encourage dialogue on the site via Yelp Talk; just not on business reviews.”
“Karl added: “As is our normal procedure, we’ll be working to pull these reviews and notify the reviewers in the coming days.”
Yelp reviews or not, when a small store makes national headlines for anti-gay business practices, especially in a state like New Jersey, where four out of five voters have opted for legal recognitions of same-​sex unions, and where voters prefer same-​sex marriage 47% – 42%, the Somers, New Jersey shop, Here Comes the Bride, may find itself going, if not to court, then, possibly, just, away.