CHARLOTTE, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A federal district court has ruled in favor of an Eaton County fruit farmer after the farmer’s market in East Lansing ousted him over his views on same-sex weddings at his farm.
Steve Tennes, owner of Country Mill Farms, sued East Lansing in 2017 after officials denied him a vendor’s license at the city’s farmers market. Tennes is Catholic and sued after he says city officials targeted him over a Facebook post. Tennes said he follows the Catholic Church’s teachings about marriage.
Initially, a court granted Tennes an injunction so he could continue selling his crops at the market, but not after he lost several months of business there along with a few business contracts.
Tennes, who spoke on The Steve Gruber Show on Thursday, said the East Lansing farmer’s market allowed his farm to sell his crops at the market for years. He said all that changed in 2016.
“At the time this happened, it was a tough decision,” Tennes said. “We’re parents of six children. But as veterans, we knew we had to stand up for this.”
The Western District of Michigan ruled that Tennes and his family were improperly “forced to choose between following their religious beliefs and a government benefit for which they were otherwise qualified.”
Tennes said other vendors spoke to him in private about how “bullied” they felt.
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“What we really were impressed with are the people that don’t share our beliefs, but they understand and affirm our right to speak freely about out beliefs without the fear of government punishment.”
Country Mill Farms is a 120-acre, second-generation family farm in Charlotte. It is roughly 20 miles outside the East Lansing city limits and a private business. East Lansing said every farmer’s market vendor must “comply with the City of East Lansing’s Civil Rights ordinances and the public policy against discrimination contained in Chapter 22 of the East Lansing City Code while at the ELFM and as a general business practice.”
