Perry Hall Bride Denied Access To NC Wedding Venue: Report

PERRY HALL, MD — A Perry Hall native looking to get married at a North Carolina wedding venue was reportedly rejected due to her sexual preference.

When Kasey Mayfield, 25, was asked for the name of the groom and instead provided the name of the other bride, she told the Winston-Salem Journal a representative from The Warehouse on Ivy informed her: "We do not host same-sex ceremonies."

The Winston-Salem venue's representative said in a statement to the newspaper that while it respects other people's decisions, "we also strongly believe in our Christian values," standing by its policy not to host same-sex wedding ceremonies.

Mayfield, an accountant from Perry Hall in Maryland, told the journal that she and her partner, 29-year-old Brianna May, a pathology technician who grew up in Winston-Salem, were scoping out places to get married in 2022 and were informed of their ineligibility by email.

Because of the social media backlash over their experience, Yelp temporarily disabled reviews for The Warehouse on Ivy, according to the News & Observer, a newspaper covering the Carolinas. It reports North Carolina does not have statewide nondiscrimination protections for same-sex couples.

Maryland is one of 20 states that, along with the District of Columbia, protects members of the LGBTQ community from discrimination, according to Freedom for All Americans, a bipartisan campaign to extend nondiscrimination protections to all states.

The Fairness for All Marylanders Act of 2014 prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. However, the Associated Press noted the court's decision dealt with the baker's First Amendment rights in the context of a ruling by a local commission and did not address the larger issue of whether businesses can refuse service to gays and lesbians on the basis of religious objections.

While May said she and her partner do not plan to file a lawsuit, they are encouraging people to promote anti-discrimination legislation in North Carolina, according to NBC News.

The couple received an "overwhelming" amount of support since May posted on Facebook Dec. 19 about their experience, which occurred over email.