Commission: Christian OK to Refuse Gay Video Copying
Wednesday, Jun. 14, 2006

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - An Arlington businessman who had been ordered by a local government commission to duplicate videos of gay-rights marches that he found offensive won a reprieve after the commission rescinded its initial order.

Tim Bono, of Bono Film and Video, sued the Arlington County government last week after its Human Rights Commission found him in violation of the county's anti-discrimination laws.

The commission said he denied services to a gay-rights activist based on her sexual orientation. The activist, Lilli Vincenz, had asked Bono to duplicate some archival footage of early gay-rights marches that she had on Betamax tapes.

Bono refused. He said his refusal had nothing to do with Vincenz's sexual orientation but with the content of the videos, which he deemed antithetical to his Christian values.

In April, the Human Rights Commission sided with Vincenz, and ordered Bono to either duplicate the videos or find someone else to do it at Bono's expense. the rest