Firm's refusal of gay clients stuns Houston - Landscaper under siege after e-mail surfaces

Firm's refusal of gay clients stuns Houston - Landscaper under siege after e-mail surfaces
By Lianne Hart
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune and the Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published November 7, 2006

HOUSTON -- The co-owner of a landscaping company called Garden Guy turned down a job in October by sending an e-mail to a man who had sought an estimate for work on his yard:

"I am appreciative of your time on the phone today and glad you contacted us," Sabrina Farber wrote. "I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work with homosexuals. Best of luck in finding someone else to fill your landscaping needs. All the best."

Floored, the recipient of the e-mail, Michael Lord, and his partner forwarded the message to dozens of friends. Within days the e-mail had spread across the Internet to bloggers, the homosexual media and online gardening forums from Seattle to Washington, D.C.

Farber and her husband, Todd, who have owned the landscaping company since 1991, were bombarded with profane phone calls and e-mails. Their online forum was flooded with outraged posts.

"It blackens my mind to think that an alternative version of the KKK is alive & kicking in the USA," read one of the milder comments.

The Farbers, declining interviews, released a statement saying they "do not hate homosexuals" and "did not refuse service with malicious intent. ... We meant to uphold our right as small business owners to choose who our clients are. We are humbly sorry for the hurt that it has caused."

Lord and his partner, Gary Lackey, also declined to be interviewed.

The episode was a jolt to many in Houston, where gays and lesbians have enjoyed increasing acceptance over the years. Despite the city's conservative reputation, there's been a significant shift in support of gay rights here, said Jack Valinski, executive director of Pride Houston, a gay-rights group.

"The e-mail was an aberration. People may want to discriminate, but they're not blatant and public about it like they were before."

Legal action has not been threatened, and both sides seem content to let the matter die. But Valinski said activists may push for an anti-discrimination ordinance that prevents businesses from rejecting customers based on sexual orientation.

The Farbers are clear about their views in a "Learn About Garden Guy" page of their Web site (www.garden-guy.com). "The God-ordained institution of marriage is under attack in courts across the nation, and your help is needed," reads a tagline above a link to nogaymarriage.com.

Tim Wildmon, president of the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, defends the Farbers.

"It shouldn't come as a shock when a guy who takes his faith seriously says, `I can't support this,'" Wildmon said. "He doesn't need to be persecuted for his actions."

But the Association of Professional Landscape Designers declared that "this conduct does not conform to the policy and practice of APLD."

In an e-mail to friends, Sabrina Farber reportedly wrote that her husband received death threats, and she was told she shouldn't have had the right to bear children. The couple delisted their home phone number, which had appeared on the Internet with their home address.

Houston has come a long way since the 1970s, when police arrested women for wearing pants with the zipper in front, said Phyllis Frye, a transgender lawyer. She led a successful drive to overturn the ordinance that banned dressing like a member of the opposite sex in public.

In 2005, 49 percent of respondents surveyed in Houston said homosexuality was "morally wrong," down from 59 percent in 1997. "This is a good-ole-boy town that has changed a lot," Valinski said, "but not as much as we'd like."