Maryland DJ Refuses To Provide Services For Gay Man's 60th Birthday Party

(Graphic via Washington Post)

Well, this will get interesting.

First we had wedding photographers and bakeries refusing to provide services for same-sex weddings based on "sincerely held religious beliefs." Same-sex marriage was a bridge too far for those folks, and they could not see themselves as "participating" in a same-sex wedding.

Now, however, a Maryland DJ has refused to work at a birthday party being thrown for a 60 year old gay man. No wedding. No unions. Just a party where gay people might be.

And Ultrasound Deejays has a written company policy stating, “we will not be involved in any event involving homosexual celebration or activity. We follow biblical morality.”

More from the Washington Post:

The national debate about how to balance religious conscience protections and gay equality flared in the large, mostly liberal Washington, D.C., suburb of Montgomery County Friday, when Dani Tsakounis tried to help her brother hire Ultrasound Deejays for a party. An owner of the business told Tsakounis he would not provide the DJ because Tsakounis’s brother, a Silver Spring therapist, is married to another man and the birthday party they are hosting is for their 60-year-old roommate, who is also gay.

“I just said, ‘We won’t be able to do it, we’re a Christian organization and it would go against our faith, I’m sorry,’” Michael Lampiris, co-owner of Ultrasound Deejays, said Friday.

Tom Tsakounis, 46, was so upset when his sister told him that he posted the news on his neighborhood listserv, prompting calls of sympathy from neighbors. He also registered a complaint with the Montgomery County Human Rights Commission, which hears cases of alleged discrimination.

Maryland state law has banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodation — which includes businesses “offering goods, services, entertainment” the law says — since 2001.

The article goes on to say that Lampiris admits that he's turned down bridal parties just because he heard lesbians might be attending.

According to reports, Lampiris didn't sound very concerned about breaking the law, though, stating, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”