Mississippi Venue Owner Apologizes for Canceling Interracial Wedding Over Christian Belief

The owner of Boone’s Camp Event Hall in Booneville, Mississippi has issued an apology for proclaiming that their “Christian belief” couldn’t allow for them to host the wedding of an interracial couple.

LaKambria S. Welch visited Boone’s Camp Event Hall this past Saturday in search of an answer upon discovering the venue’s sudden cancellation of her brother’s upcoming nuptials. Welch spoke with a woman who claimed to be the event hall’s owner, and recorded their interaction. “First of all, we don’t do gay weddings or mixed race … because of our Christian race, I mean, our Christian belief,” she explains to Welch. 

“When she explained that she doesn’t do the two specific type of weddings, I felt myself starting to shake,” Welch told The Washington Post, in regards to hearing that her brother, who is black, wasn’t allowed to wed his white fiancé in their venue. “Just hearing it gave me chills,” she added.

In 2016, Mississippi governor Phil Bryant signed a bill into law that gave businesses the right to refuse providing services to same sex couples and people who identify as transgender in an effort “to protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions.” However, the people behind this idiotic bill forgot to go full discriminatory and include interracial couples. 

Welch posted her video on social media, which elicited a statement from the city of Booneville, denouncing the venue’s decision. 

Amid so much criticism over her refusal, the owner of Boone’s Camp Event Hall decided to check back in on the Bible to see if it was well within her “Christian belief” to deny their interracial marriage. And to her surprise, the Bible mentions nothing about forbidding the union of people of different races, and now, she wants to apologize for her previous stance.   

“As my bible reads, there are two requirements for marriage and race has nothing to do with either!,” her Facebook post reads. “All of my years I had ‘assumed’ in my mind that I was correct, but have never taken the opportunity to research and find whether this was correct or incorrect until now.” 

Welch isn’t so accepting of her apology in light of her newfound realization. “I am 24 and have been brought up my entire life in a Christian Family; my grandad being a reverend,” Welch wrote to The Washington Post. “If I know that the Bible doesn’t say anything about biracial marriages, she knows too.”