City of Coeur d’Alene issued this response via Facebook to the thousands of emails received today re: Hitching Post controversy:
The city of Coeur d’Alene has been contacted by a huge volume of people inquiring about our anti-discrimination
ordinance, passed in 2013 by the City Council. These contacts have been a reaction to a lawsuit filed by the owners of a local marriage chapel, the Hitching Post, which claims the city has taken inappropriate action against their business for their decision to not perform same-sex marriages. In fact, the city has received no c
omplaints about the Hitching Post and we have never threatened them. If we did get a complaint we would investigate it like any other complaint to determine if there is a legitimate violation of a city code
.
If we investigate it and determine that they fall within our exemption for religious corporations, we would not pursue it further because they would be exempt. At this point the city is reviewing the complaint and hopes to more fully respond to the allegations as quickly as possible.
(SR file photo)
Thoughts?