The Creation Museum in Petersberg, Ky. denied a “same-sex couple” entry to a date-night event on Feb. 11. But the “couple” wasn’t actually gay.
Here’s what happened. When Jonathan Meador, his girlfriend and Brandon Absher approached the entrance to the event, they were stopped at the door.
Meador — a writer for the LEO Weekly in Kentucky — told TPM that security guards were suspicious that a group of three showed up for a couples’ “Date Night.” They asked the group where the other date was, wondering what type of car “she” drove, Meador said.
Meador told security that Absher’s partner’s name was Joe, and that he would be joining them shortly.
“For all they could have known, they could have thought (he’s a) business partner,” Meador said. “They assumed Brandon and Joe [Sonka] were a same-sex couple.”
Meador told TPM that security personnel said a homosexual couple wouldn’t be allowed in, as it would disturb the event for others. He said that he told security there had been a misunderstanding, and that the two men were not, in fact, a homosexual couple — but they didn’t accept his explanation.
Creation Museum spokesman Mark Looy referred TPM’s questions to the museum’s press release, which said that event organizers were expecting a “flamboyantly” gay couple to crash the event, as Sonka — a progressive blogger — had written a post encouraging the idea. But Meador says Sonka was simply left without a date when she canceled on him at the last minute, and Absher’s addition to the group was mere coincidence.
As the AP pointed out, it’s not clear whether either party believed the two men could gain entrance to the event, which featured a talk by Creation Museum founder Ken Ham, dinner and a concert. Tickets for the event were $71.90 per couple, and Sonka did not receive a refund for the cost.
“I would say that I thought the chances were fairly even that they would even let us in through the door,” Sonka told TPM.
While the museum’s statement claims Sonka was deliberately attempting to “crash” the event, Meador suggests otherwise.
“We were trying to explain that Brandon is heterosexual,” Meador said. “There was no mention to us about a blog.”
Among Meador and Sonka’s qualms with the Creation Museum — and its parent company, Answers in Genesis — is a proposed “Creationist Theme Park” slated to be built in Kentucky by the same company. The park has received preliminary approval for tax incentives, which would could subsidize up to 25 percent of the project by returning the sales tax on costs such as food, admission and gift sales.
Meador said that, all things considered, he enjoyed the event. Ham’s talk was “very interesting,” he said. “It was much more pleasant than I had expected.” Otherwise, he said the program wasn’t “really that eventful.”
“If anything, the whole event stemmed from accidentally referring to one man as another man’s couple or date,” Meador said.
