PAXTON, Ill. (BP) – An Illinois judge has given the owners of a bed and breakfast one year to provide their facility to a gay couple “for an event celebrating their civil union.” The order, part of a decision handed down March 22, also includes an $80,000 fine.
In September, Illinois Human Rights Commission Judge Michael Robinson declared Jim and Beth Walder, owners of Timber Creek Bed and Breakfast near Paxton, Ill., in violation of the state’s Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination in public accommodation based on sexual orientation.
In a 2011 email exchange with Todd Wathen, Jim Walder said because the Bible “contains the highest laws pertinent to man,” his inn would never host a same-sex wedding or civil union.
