Grooms at a gay wedding – Photo: Alvin Mahmudov, via Unsplash. A federal appeals court has ruled against a graphic designer who sued the state of Colorado in an attempt to overturn the state’s law prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination in public accommodations. Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, creates graphic designs and websites for houses of worship, political candidates, and weddings, as well as other clients. She claims she will do work for LGBTQ clients, but that her religious beliefs prevent her from creating custom wedding websites for same-sex nuptials or “promoting events, products, services, or organizations that are inconsistent with my religious beliefs,” according to the company’s website. In September 2016, Smith enlisted the help of the anti-LGBTQ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom and filed a lawsuit challenging the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination against various groups, including LGBTQ people, in places of public accommodation. Her lawsuit was dismissed in May 2019, on the grounds that she had filed suit before the state had taken any action against her — or before she had even been asked to create a website for a same-sex couple — and thus, had no grounds to sue. In September 2019, a […]
