LGBT Couple Sues Senior Living Center For Discrimination

SUNSET HILLS, MO — Two women were denied housing at Friendship Village senior living community in Sunset Hills in 2016 because they are lesbians, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the Post-Dispatch reports.

After putting down a $2,000 deposit, 72-year-old Mary Walsh and 69-year-old Bev Nance were told their relationship violated the living center's cohabitation policy, which defines marriage as "the union of one man and one woman," according to the complaint.

The couple has been together for almost 40 years and finally married in Massachusetts in 2009, when same-sex marriage became legal in that state. As they grew older, the couple said they wanted to move out of their large, single-family home into a senior community to make their lives easier. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims Friendship Village's policy violates both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Missouri Human Rights Act.

The group says other same-sex couples have also been denied housing at the facility.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of a California baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Walsh and Nance's case may be the latest in a slew of tests for LGBT rights under the guise of religious liberty.

Friendship Villages refused to comment in response to the lawsuit, but said it was consulting with legal counsel. The living center is not affiliated with any religious institution.

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