Country Mills Farms filed a religious freedom lawsuit against the City of East Lansing after the city refused them a license to vend at the city's farmers market, which gained national media attention. The city's license refusal followed the farm excluding same-sex couples to use their farm for weddings.
In 2016, Steve Tennes, owner of Country Mills Farm, made a statement on Facebook stating his belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. According to Mayor Ruth Beier, who was Mayor Pro Tem at the time, Tennes said same-sex couples would not be able to rent out the orchard for weddings.
The city said this violated East Lansing's anti-discrimination policy.
Tennes also filed a motion to appeal the refusal to vend in 2017, which was approved in Sep. 2017, and Country Mills Farm was allowed to vend at the city's farmers market for the remainder of the produce season.
In an interview in September 2019, former Mayor of East Lansing Mark Meadows said he felt the community agreed with him that this fight is worth it.
“I think we are committed as a community to inclusion and protecting everybody from discrimination,” Meadows said.
In 2019, East Lansing received a 100 point score from the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index, which "demonstrates the ways that many cities can — and do — support the LGBTQ people who live and work there, even where states and the federal government have failed to do so," according to their website.
The non-jury trial between Country Mills and the city is set to take place on Sept. 14 at the Western District of Michigan. The trial is estimated to take four days.
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