Cape Town-based jeweller Craig Marks Diamonds has come under fire for refusing to help design and make an engagement ring for a woman looking to propose to her girlfriend.
According to Daily Maverick – who chose to conceal the client’s name in order to protect her privacy – the woman approached the local jeweller last week for a quote but initially did not hear anything back. She then followed up with the company via WhatsApp, to which she received the following response:
“Apologies for not responding. I notice this is for engagement for 2 females? We do not make rings for same sex marriages as we follow Christ and do not want to partake in what God calls sin which is a man with a man or woman with a woman [sic] So God created them man and woman and the man to lie with the woman [sic].”
The sender of the message further goes on to say that “I don’t expect you to abide by God’s laws if you are not a believer. The main sin of an unbeliever is unbelief. This is not with the intent to offend you but I do understand that it can be offensive. It’s not personal, as you seem like a nice person, but is our companies stand always [sic].”
The WhatsApp message is then ended with “wishing you a beautiful day further. Warm Regards, Craig Marks.” Whether the message was sent by a representative from the company, or from the owner itself, remains unclear.
Daily Maverick reports that the client then sent a follow-up message, asking them if they were aware of the fact that “it’s both unconstitutional and illegal to deny an offered service on the grounds of sex/race/orientation/creed/etc or did you maybe just not know?”
In its response, the company wrote: “It is not illegal to deny services for religious reasons as has already been settled by the courts in the case of the Christian baker in the making of wedding cakes [sic].”
The online reaction towards Craig Marks Diamonds has since been so severe that the company appears to have disabled/taken down its Facebook Page at the time of writing this article.
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