Liberty Counsel Defends Christian Ordered to Copy Pro-Homosexual Videos
by Allie Martin
May 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Virginia businessman has been ordered by the Arlington Human Rights Commission to duplicate pro-homosexual videos, even though he says reproducing the material would violate his biblical values.
Earlier this year, Tim Bono, owner of Bono Film and Video, was contacted via e-mail by a potential customer, Lilli Vincenz, who asked him to reproduce two documentaries entitled Gay and Proud and Second Largest Minority. Bono informed Vincenz that he was refusing the job as his company does not copy material that is obscene or that could embarrass employees, hurt the company's reputation, or material that otherwise runs counter to the company's Christian values.
Vincenz contacted the Arlington Human Rights Commission, asking it to force to Bono to duplicate her videos, and last month the Commission ordered him to do so. Florida-based Liberty Counsel is defending him.
According to the Human Rights Commission's order, if the Christian businessman refuses to do the duplication job "after a reasonable amount of time, the commissioners can reassemble to discuss why the remedy was not done." The Commission could then forward the case to the full county Board of Commissioners and request permission to file a discrimination complaint against Mr. Bono in Arlington Circuit Court.
However, Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver says the film and video service's owner was within his rights to refuse to duplicate the pro-homosexual materials. "He did not discriminate against any person because of their sex or gender or their sexual practices," the attorney asserts. "Instead, he did what any person of common sense would do."
According to Staver, owners of video transfer and duplication businesses can certainly refuse to duplicate homosexual propaganda videos without discriminating on the basis of the customer's sexual preference, and they have every right to turn such work down.
"While lifestyle choices are not relevant to his business, what customers request Mr. Bono to duplicate is critically important," the Liberty Counsel spokesman contends. He says a Christian proprietor like Bono has " just as much right to refuse to duplicate videos which promote the homosexual agenda as he has the right to refuse to duplicate obscenity, pornography or hate speech."
Christian business owners "don't have to allow [their] business to be hijacked to promote the ideology of some radical, homosexual agenda," Staver insists. "That's what this lesbian activist is trying to do," he says, "and no business is required to do that."
"In fact," the attorney continues, "newspapers, or publishers or printers are not required to print every item or reproduce every copy that they receive. They have the discretion to not engage in every reproduction of a suggested item."
Mr. Bono would never be forced to duplicate videos promoting obscenity, pornography, or hate speech, Staver adds. And neither, he asserts, should the Christian company owner be forced to copy Vincenz's pro-homosexual videos or to allow his company "to become a vehicle of her ideological agenda."
Staver says it is possible that legal action will be taken against the Arlington Human Rights Commission on Tim Bono's behalf.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
