Mississippi Wedding Venue Cites ‘Christian Belief’ in Refusing Interracial Couple

An interracial Mississippi couple was turned away from a wedding venue with the owner citing her refusal based on her “Christian beliefs.” The owner of the venue has since apologized, saying she was raised to believe interracial marriage was an “understood subject.”

In a now-viral video posted on Facebook on Saturday by LaKambria Welch, an unidentified woman can be heard saying, in part, “we don’t do gay weddings or mixed-raced (weddings) because of our Christian race, I mean our Christian belief.”

With the 2016 passage of House Bill 1523, Mississippi businesses are allowed to deny services based on their religious views. {snip} The bill was primarily directed at sexual orientation and same-sex marriage. Race was not a part of the legislation.

According to multiple media reports, Welch went to Boone’s Camp Event Hall in Booneville on Saturday with her mother after finding out the venue would not host her brother, who is black, and his fianceé, who is white.

In the video, Welch begins to ask the woman, “Well, we’re Christians as well so, what in the Bible tells you that,” but the woman interrupts her, saying, “Well, I just don’t want to argue my faith.

“We just don’t participate, we just choose not to,” she said.

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In two screenshots obtained by WCBI-TV in Columbus, Mississippi, the event hall posted an apology, saying in part, “as a child growing up in Mississippi, our racial boundaries that were unstated were that of staying in your own race.”

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The woman then apologized for her “ignorance in not knowing the truth.”

“My intent was never of racism but to stand firm on what I ‘assumed’ was right concerning marriage,” she said.

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