Colorado web designer who refused LGBTQ couples gets appeal rejected by court

The LGBTQ community has been winning cases against bigots left and right!

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of Denver rejected web designer Lorie Smith’s appeal 2-1, overturning a lower court’s ruling that threw out her suit, according to The Advocate.

The Denver appeals court has struck down Smith’s appeal, after she refused to create wedding websites for same-sex couples citing her religious beliefs. She then sued the state of Colorado’s anti-discrimination law.

The law challenged by Smith is the same law at the center of the Jack Phillips wedding cake suit, in which Phillips cited religious beliefs after receiving to bake for a same sex couple. In 2018, the court decided Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission had treated Phillips with anti-religious bias. But, the court still did not rule on whether business owners could refuse service to LGBTQ people based on their religious beliefs. 

The ruling in the Lorie Smith case is just the latest in a number of court cases around the United States that seek to challenge whether or not businesses can deny services to LGBTQ+ people as a matter of free speech, according to the Associated Press.

The organization representing Smith, the Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains their stance that the law goes against her Christian religious beliefs. However, LGBTQ+ rights group Lambda Legal submitted a brief in support of the anti-discrimination law.

“This is a tremendous ruling that properly situates our cherished freedoms of speech and religion among the important rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, while also understanding that the State of Colorado has a compelling interest and responsibility to end discrimination in the commercial sphere,” Lambda Legal senior counsel Jennifer Pizer said in a statement after the ruling was announced.

She continues: “[It] really isn’t about cake or websites or flowers. It’s about protecting LGBTQ people and their families from being subjected to slammed doors, service refusals, and public humiliation in countless places – from fertility clinics to funeral homes, and everywhere in between.”