Lesbian couple says Missouri restaurant refused to host their wedding rehearsal dinner

Mindy Rackley and Kendall Brown thought they were booked and ready to go for their rehearsal dinner at Madison’s Cafe in O’Fallon, Missouri. However, when the restaurant learned the women were lesbians, they canceled the event, Rackley wrote in a June 4 Facebook post.

The day after Brown’s mother-in-law booked Madison’s Cafe, Brown received a call from the restaurant, the post said. The representative from the restaurant asked the groom’s name and Brown responded that her “fiance is actually a woman and her name is Mindy,” the post said.

That’s when the restaurant told Brown the couple would have to host their dinner somewhere else because they “don’t condone that of relationship,” the post said. The woman went on to say it was “out of love” that they wouldn’t accommodate them because they “believe I am in an unhealthy relationship,” Rackley wrote.

A man who answered the phone at Madison’s Cafe refused to comment on the situation when reached by McClatchy stating that “it’s just going to have to blow over and be done with.”

For Rackley and Brown, it may not be that simple.

“It’s appalling to be treated any less than human by not serving me because we are women and are in a relationship,” Rackley said, according to KMOV. “We feel less than human.”

Rackley and Brown have found another venue for their rehearsal dinner and several Yelp users have come to the couple’s defense. Madison’s Cafe now has pages of one-star reviews.

“Love is love. Choose tolerance. You can’t ‘fix’ gay,” one user said.

“Our goal in going public is to let people know who don’t believe they have a voice and afraid to say something that who they are is worth speaking for and fighting for,” Brown said, according to KTVI.

This story was originally published June 6, 2019 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Lesbian couple says Missouri restaurant refused to host their wedding rehearsal dinner."