Christian homeowners ban couple from viewing dream £650,000 house ‘because they’re gay’
A couple who thought they’d found their dream home were told they couldn’t even view it — because they are gay.
Luke Whitehouse and Lachlan Mantell emailed to arrange a viewing of the £650,000, three-bed, semi-detached cottage in Surrey through online estate agent Purplebricks.
The owners replied: ‘Would you mind telling us a bit about your position and circumstances when you have a moment please?’
Lachlan happily responded: ‘I’m a 37-year-old TV producer for ITV and Luke is a 33-year-old business owner in education.’
But the properties owners, Luke Main and his wife Dr Joanna Brunker, 34 — a Cambridge university medical physicist — wrote back: ‘Dear Lachlan and Luke, thank you for sharing your circumstances with us.
‘We’re sorry if we seem intrusive, but we just want to make clear that we would be unwilling for two men in a partnership to view or buy our house as it is contrary to the gracious teaching in God’s Word, the Holy Bible, e.g. Romans 1:24-28 and Jude 7 (King James Version). With regards.’
The Christian couple then sent Luke and Lachlan Bible passages that reference ‘sinful desires’, the ‘vengeance of eternal fire’ and ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’.
Luke, from Putney, south-west London, said when he read the message he initially thought it was a joke but was then reduced to tears by the homophobia.
‘Initially for the first 10 seconds I laughed. I thought it was a joke. But then I was upset and angry and I had a cry on the phone to my mum,’ he told MailOnline.
Luke and Lachlan, who have been together for eight years, are desperate to get their own place after being kept apart during the pandemic.
Luke said: ‘We were separated during Covid, he was in America while I was here, we were forced apart.
‘Buying a house was something that we wanted to do for a long time. But this was the only house we planned for a viewing. We were looking forward to going this weekend.
‘Homophobia still exists, it is still out there. I did not see it coming. I was blindsided by it.
‘Since I came out eight years ago I’ve not come across discrimination. I probably have been discriminated against but was just not aware of it.’
He said he and Lachlan, who is originally from Australia, would now not buy or even view the house, even if the owners apologised following.
‘We will look for something else now,’ he said.
‘We are not going to let it affect us trying to buy a house.’
Lachlan reported the exchange to Purple Bricks, which was advertising the cottage via Rightmove.
Purplebricks has now apologised and stopped marketing the property, saying the owners’ comments are against its ‘views and values’.
It added: ‘We’ll refund this seller’s fee as Purplebricks no longer wish to list it.’
Contacted by MailOnline, builder Mr Main, 33, said he would have to discuss the matter with his wife, but added: ‘Not that we’re ashamed of what we said in any way.’
Stonewall, a leading charity for the LGBT+ community has condemned the comments.
Sasha Misra, associate director of communications and campaigns at Stonewall said: ‘It is shocking to hear that a gay couple were turned away from buying a property because of their sexuality.
‘Gay people should be able to rent or buy property wherever they choose and should not expect to be treated differently because of who they love.
‘Instances like this hark back to an era when it was commonplace to treat lesbian, gay, bi or trans people unfairly, refuse their custom or turn them away from accommodation – and it simply has no place in Britain today.’
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