Supplied/ Candice van Eck
A Gqeberha couple is writing to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and thereafter heading to the Equality Court after a Cape Town jeweller refused to sell an engagement ring to them because they are part of the LGBTQI+ community.
Algoa FM News has seen an email where Craig Quinton of Craig Marks Custom Made Fine Jewellery refused to sell a ring to 36-year-old Candice van Eck, who wanted to surprise her partner with a proposal.
In the email, Quinton says: “You did mention on the phone that it’s an engagement ring for a female partner,”
“We, unfortunately, do not provide rings for the purposes of engagement or marriage for same-sex couples. This is out of faith towards God as He has said between man and woman.”
He added that he’d be happy to help her if she was looking for any other kind of jewellery.
Relaying the ordeal, Van Eck told Algoa FM News that she approached the company in March before a trip to Greece where she would surprise her fiancé.
She says Quinton seemed keen on the sale but then ghosted her.
She says when she used her mother's phone to contact him, she received the email.
Van Eck says she did not put the company on blast as it would have ruined her surprise.
“But it made me feel like I was not good enough and worthless."
“I have never felt like that before and it's very unfair,” she told Algoa FM News.
She says since then, she is always questioning whether she is allowed in spaces in order to not feel like she felt.
Asked why she had decided to speak out now she referred to Steve Hofmeyr where the SAHRC is dragging him to court.
Hofmeyr is in legal trouble after he said he feels that Disney's plan to have more inclusive characters is to groom children to have sex with animals.
She says the story sparked the same feelings that she felt in March and so she approached OUT LGBT which is the second-oldest LGBTQ+ organization in South Africa.
They have a legal section which has been assisting Van Eck with lodging the complaints.
OUT’s Human Rights Manager, Lerato Phalakatshela, says business owners cannot deny services to LGBTIQ+ people based on their religious beliefs.
“These beliefs cannot be brought into their professional and public capacities and used as an excuse to discriminate against a protected group.”
Approached for comment by Algoa FM News, Quinton referred to a statement he had made in 2019 saying it could be found on his page.
In the statement, Quinton reportedly said: “our conscience before God prohibits us from designing and manufacturing rings for the purpose of marriage which, according to the Bible, has a very specific definition and meaning.”
He further asserts that religious freedom supersedes the right of LGBTQ people to equality and protection from discrimination.
However, the post has since been deleted.
