Note to self—landscapers to avoid in the highly unlikely event I move to Texas
Here's the letter:
I am appreciative of your time on the phone today and glad you contacted us.
I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work for homosexuals.
Best of luck in finding someone else to fill your landscaping needs.
All my best,
Sabrina
Todd and Sabrina Farber
Owners, Garden Guy, Inc.
visit us at: www.garden-guy.com
Member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers www.apld.com
Creating beautiful landscaping for Houston homeowners since 1991!
Phone 281-208-4400
Fax 1+801-365-9353
email: sabrina@garden-guy.com
email: todd@garden-guy.com
UPDATE: I've been asked to document this. It's actually old news—it was reported (from Houston) in the Los Angeles Times on Monday, by writer Lianne Hart. Here's an excerpt:
The co-owner of a landscaping company here called Garden Guy turned down a job last month by sending an e-mail to a man who had requested an estimate for work on his yard:
...[see above]
Floored, the recipient of the e-mail, Michael Lord, and his partner forwarded the message to dozens of friends. Within days the e-mail had spread across the Internet in blogs, websites and gardening forums from Seattle to Washington, D.C.
Farber and her husband, Todd, who've owned the landscaping company since 1991, were bombarded with profane phone calls and e-mails. Their online forum flooded with outraged posts.
"It blackens my mind to think that an alternative version of the KKK is alive & kicking in the USA," read one of the milder comments.
The Farbers, declining interviews, released a statement saying they "do not hate homosexuals" and "did not refuse service with malicious intent.... We meant to uphold our right as small business owners to choose who our clients are. We are humbly sorry for the hurt that it has caused."
And that's all I'll quote, as I dislike violating other people's copyright. But the simplest of googles will yield a rich harvest of commentary on this issue.
I am appreciative of your time on the phone today and glad you contacted us.
I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work for homosexuals.
Best of luck in finding someone else to fill your landscaping needs.
All my best,
Sabrina
Todd and Sabrina Farber
Owners, Garden Guy, Inc.
visit us at: www.garden-guy.com
Member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers www.apld.com
Creating beautiful landscaping for Houston homeowners since 1991!
Phone 281-208-4400
Fax 1+801-365-9353
email: sabrina@garden-guy.com
email: todd@garden-guy.com
UPDATE: I've been asked to document this. It's actually old news—it was reported (from Houston) in the Los Angeles Times on Monday, by writer Lianne Hart. Here's an excerpt:
The co-owner of a landscaping company here called Garden Guy turned down a job last month by sending an e-mail to a man who had requested an estimate for work on his yard:
...[see above]
Floored, the recipient of the e-mail, Michael Lord, and his partner forwarded the message to dozens of friends. Within days the e-mail had spread across the Internet in blogs, websites and gardening forums from Seattle to Washington, D.C.
Farber and her husband, Todd, who've owned the landscaping company since 1991, were bombarded with profane phone calls and e-mails. Their online forum flooded with outraged posts.
"It blackens my mind to think that an alternative version of the KKK is alive & kicking in the USA," read one of the milder comments.
The Farbers, declining interviews, released a statement saying they "do not hate homosexuals" and "did not refuse service with malicious intent.... We meant to uphold our right as small business owners to choose who our clients are. We are humbly sorry for the hurt that it has caused."
And that's all I'll quote, as I dislike violating other people's copyright. But the simplest of googles will yield a rich harvest of commentary on this issue.
Comments
I went to the website - at least this guy seems to be an organic bigot.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
There is a huge gardening website that doesn't even acknowledge that there are a "few" gay people in the gardening community.It's a very conservative site but has lots of great members and lots of info so I'm still a member.I would love to speak my mind but would be thrown off.Any ideas?
tea
xo
Well, perhaps you will get more business out of the media coverage.