Watch: Denver Videographer Denies Service to Lesbian Couple's Wedding

A videographer in Denver, Colorado, says that he has nothing against LGBTQs, and he's happy to make videos for them... unless it's a video of a wedding or other celebration of same-sex families, reports local ABC affiliate Channel 7.

The story covered the wedding preparations being made by lesbian couple Anna Suhyda and Amanda Broadway. Among the many items on the list of preparations for their wedding is to hire a videographer. But MediaMansion, which Suhyda contacted because of its high ratings, isn't interested in being hired by the couple, the reason being they are not heterosexual.

In fact, Suhyda told Channel 7, she got an email from the company following a phone chat that dashed her hopes with the sentence, "Unfortunately, at this time, we are not serving the LGBTQ community!"

"With an exclamation point," noted Suhyda, who said that the terse rejection was "Kind of like a punch in the gut."

The company not only forsook the job but also saw its formerly high customer ratings go into free-fall, the article said.

MediaMansion took to Facebook to correct the record and tell its side of the story, saying that the email sent to Suhyda by an employee of the company was a "miscommunication." But that doesn't mean that the company is willing to help loving same-sex couple celebrate; rather, if any LGBTQs want to shell out their pink dollars for videography services not related to weddings or other celebrations of love and commitment between persons of the same gender, the company is happy to be of service.

"For clarification," the Facebook post said. "MediaMansion is happy to work with people in the LGBTQ community! If a person who identifies as LGBT needs a video for their growing business, a vlog, short film idea, etc., we'd love to assist. We simply do not film gay ceremonies or engagements.

"This decision is based on personal religious beliefs," the post continues. "We do not ask that you agree with our beliefs but only ask that you respect our beliefs."

The post goes on to add, "We have respect and love for the LGBTQ community and are happy to refer them to friends or other vendors when we are not able to provide videography."

Owner Benjamin Hostetter told Channel 7 that the company's policy is rooted in a conviction that marriage "has to do with family and producing healthy families." Added the business owner, "I don't think there's a lot of good evidence out there that two men or two women can come together and have a really amazing effective family that is good and everlasting."

EDGE readers, of course, know otherwise. As reported here recently, another in a long line of studies has not only reaffirmed what previous scientific investigations have shown – that children raised by two loving and committed parents of the same gender do not do worse in school or in life than do children of heterosexual parents – but has also been able to show, now that same-sex marriage has legally existed for a few years, that children born to same-sex parents (as opposed to being born to heterosexual parents who then divorce because one or both parents are gay, and then are raised by a biological parent and that parent's same-sex life partner) do even better than children born to mixed-gender parents, in large part because same-sex couples are more committed to parenthood from the outset.

As for marriages and family being "everlasting," early indications for same-sex marriage were that couples of the same gender divorce less frequently than their heterosexual peers. As time goes on, however, the rate of divorce now seems to be roughly the same between married couples of the same gender and mixed-gender marrieds, though the data so far suggest that heterosexual couples have a three percent higher divorce rate (18%) than gay male marriages (15%).

British statistics do indicate that married lesbians divorce more frequently than male couples, but the fact that legal parity for same-sex families is so recent means more time will be needed for trends to be more firmly established and understood.

The Channel 5 report drew comparisons between MediaMansion's denial of services to same-sex weddings and the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, named for the Colorado business that denied a couple a cake in 2012 when marriage equality was not yet the law of the land. The Supreme Court narrowly ruled in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, partly on the basis that the denial in question took place prior to the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that struck down barriers to legal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples across the country.

Watch the Channel 7 report below.