Would they snub Pastor Ted Haggard? Or Mark Foley? Or Ken Mehlman?

Hypocrisy abounds with this so-called Christian crowd.

What would Jesus mow?

"thus says the Lord, 'your poinsetta's shall wither, your shrubs shall be shorn, your weeping willows shall weep no more'" -

As much as I disagree with their policy, finding it bigoted, discriminatory, homophobic, and a little sad, they have every right to refuse service to any customer, just as YOU have every right to refuse to spend your money with them.

In my experience, gay boys love their yards, though, and often have the disposable income to spend on them. Bad business decision.

As much as I might disagree with their policy, and find it homophobic, discriminatory, and a litle sad, they have every legal right to refuse service to a potential customer, just as much as YOU have every right to spend your money elsewhere.

In my experience though, gay boys love their yards, and love to spend money on them. Bad business decision.

This is on their web page. What asshats! This lady could have said, "We will not be able to provide you service." That's all.
Sort of like the restaurant owner that has a sign that say's "We reserve the right not to serve you."

I hope this company goes out of business. Wake up and smell the Starbucks! What, if we don't follow your way (Garden Guy's) of thinking we will end up in hell and a shity lawn?

Thanks Mike, for the excellent insight regarding using God's name in vain. It's not just for cursing anymore. Right on, Sally.

If they are excluded from the life of the Christian community, who, then, will tell them of God's inclusive love and of Jesus' reconciling death? Are they left to assume that God is so narrow-minded as to exclude them for something over which they have no control and for a choice they did not make? When will the Church finally be brave enough to say with Paul, "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female," gay or straight? God has enough love for all!

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/26/scotus.sodomy/index.html...

The point is, I don't understand the outrage. There are always other people out there that are happy to take our money and ultimately we make the decision where to place it.

It's a two way street. I get to choose who I do business with and the people I do business with get to choose whether or not they are doing business with me.

much love, Carolyn

Someone get in there and change it to "Garden Gay Inc"

Not that I condone such behavoir.

What a terrible example of who Texans are.

"while i'm not gay (ladies take note) i'm really offended by this. I tried calling them for more info or confirmation but I just get a voicemail with no other options"

So why did white-run businesses in the South refuse to serve black customers on an equal basis, versus providing the same services but charging a premium?

I'm sure both of these all-too-similar batches of yahoos would consider it beneath them to serve people they consider to be so lowly. Which is rather distinctly antithetical to Christ's message, but since when did that stop anyone from being hateful?

As to the matter of why Michael and Gary chose to contact these folks: I've recently had some contracting work done myself, and suspect that they put a generic request-for-proposal out through one of the many referral aggregation sites out there. Speaking of which, if that is indeed where M and G found these people, it might well behoove them to let any and all such locations know of this company's conduct.

I don't understand hating anyone so much you don't want to take their money. You'd think they'd overcharge people they don't like.

But then, I don't understand bigots at all.

I loved Mike_'s point about the Commandment and it inspired a blog post. www.puredoxyk.com if you wanna see your name in incredibly unfamous print, dude. ;)

Garden Guys: Thank yew for callin garden guys this is Sabrina speakin how can ah help yeeewww?

Customer: Yes Hi, I saw your ad in xx magazine and my partner and I were interested in contracting your company to do some landscaping services.

GG: Your p..p..partner and yew? Hmm, ok. Let me jest get mah quote book here, oh good lordy me, ah seem to have misplaced it. Alls ah see are bahbels ever where. Cin ah call yew raght bayak?

C: Uhh, sure.

*Click*

It's not illegal to discriminate who you do business with, and if they don't want to work for the gays that's their perogative. However they made a conscious choice to SAY that in a letter, which was completely ridiculous. They could have just said "Sorry, we can't do the work for you." End of discussion. The fact that they felt compelled to pen a letter explaining exactly why they couldn't do the business means that they are dyed in the wool, no-clue-that-there's-anything-wrong-with-that-kind-of -behaviour bigots. There is no place for them in the world of business and I sincerely hope that the firestorm of negative word of mouth in Texas and countrywide takes their business and rends it into so much compost.

This guy hasn't the business sense to be successful. Damn homophobe Aggies keep giving the rest of us a bad name.

Well when two guys share a small house together and make a joint decision on a landscaping company it's probably a safe bet that they're gay. How many straight roomates really care about landscaping?

I'm guessing this company decided to err on the side of caution and refused to do business with anyone who could possibly be gay...you know so they don't accidently work for one and end up in hell.

Gay or straight, I don't think I'd want a landscaping service that was interested in my personal life to be mowing my lawn...Just mow the f'ing lawn and I'll give you the f'ing money.

I'm thinking someone should contact the above Association and see what they have to say about this kind of crap.

But why a company like that choose to loudly proclaim what small-minded, bigoted assholes they are? They deserve all the bad publicity that is going to come back and bite them in the ass.

What is it with garden companies hating on gays anyway

Why, you ask?

Nice answer:
They're communing with God's wonder and trying to recapture the lost paradise of the garden of Eden.

Real answer:
Dreary manual labour is the only kind of work they can get after a lifetime of bullshit 'the earth is only 6000 yrs old' homeschooling that prevents sane, rational people from hiring them or paying them a living wage. That's also why they're bitter and hateful.

And what would make you think it would be illegal? Isn't there some kind of freedom as individuals to choose our own morality?

I agree that Jesus would serve them, but there's still a choice. If a Christian company chooses not to they have that right. Would you force a black man to do work for a KKK member?

Here's another one of my crackpot theories: When God commands us not to take His name in vain, what He really means is "don't do bad things and and say it was My idea". So when you use Christianity as an excuse for being a bigoted asshole, you're really pissing off the big guy upstairs.

Enjoy eternal hellfire, chumps.

Course same sex marrage really is the least of the Christians concerns about their fictional "God-ordained institution of marriage." Maybe they should all start reading their ten commandments first and thus stop the 60% divorce rate Christians have, most due to cheating.

However, in most states, you'd have a heck of a time refusing to hire them under discriminatory laws. The opportunity to earn a living is considered a critical service. So, Garden Guys can refuse to sod their lawn but they could be forced into a position of hiring them.

God, I love the American legal system...

I think its made up.

And what do they think would happen if they did do work for a homosexual? "Damn, that wiley butt pirate tricked us into installing a decorative boulder. Now we're one step closer to the end of marriage!"

From their "about" page:
The God-ordained institution of marriage is under attack in courts across the nation, and your help is needed. Go to: www.nogaymarriage.com to take action.

I'm surprised the gay guys who wanted to hire them didn't see that.

Unless it's in a state with an antidiscrimination statute that protects gays, it is in fact legal to refuse to hire them. Unfortunate, but it is. According to this article, Cracker Barrel's change in policy was voluntary (due to boycots and shareholder outcry), not due to legal action. (Also noted in that article are complaints about gender and racial discrimination - those things are covered under federal law.)

If there's a silver lining to any of this, Michael and Gary clearly avoided some awful looking landscaping... did you see the pictures on the website? Looks like the Home Depot school of landscape design. Those bigots need to pick up a DWELL magazine once and a while.

The website has this on it:

The God-ordained institution of marriage is under attack in courts across the nation, and your help is needed.
Go to: www.nogaymarriage.com to take action.

Ephesians 5:8 (Amplified Bible)
...For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light and lead the lives of those native-born to the Light.

That's a pretty big clue something like this may happen.