Death threats. Hundreds of emails. A flood of nasty calls. An email to a man seeking a quote for a landscape project has caused an enormous backlash against a Texas landscape company.
Todd and Sabrina Farber, owners of the Houston landscape company, The Garden Guy, Inc., touched off the avalanche of vituperation when Sabrina emailed a man seeking some landscaping and told him their company couldn’t do work for him because it disapproves of the gay lifestyle.
Here, reportedly, is the email she sent following an inquiry from Michael Lord about a quote to do landscaping work. It read in part: “Dear Mr. Lord, 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.”
The email, forwarded and reforwarded, ignited a flood of angry responses from people, and especially the gay community, across the country.
The Farbers have had to unlist their phone number and turn off their office phone due to the number of calls they were receiving.
Even though the couple issued an apology, they’re still getting bombarded with condemnation.
Here is their apology, posted this past Friday on the company website:
“We did not refuse service with malicious intent. We do not hate homosexuals and we are sorry that we hurt [ the gay couple ]. We meant to uphold our right as a small business owner to choose who our clients are. We are humbly sorry for the hurt that it has caused.” — Ron Hall
