Federal judge rules against lesbians turned away by retirement home

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled in favor of a retirement community in Missouri that rejected an application from a lesbian couple.

U.S. District Judge Jean C. Hamilton dismissed the couple’s lawsuit, ruling that federal civil rights law “does not prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.”

{mosads}The judge also ruled that the retirement community’s decision to reject the couple was based on sexual orientation rather than the couple’s gender.

Lawyers representing the couple told NBC News that their “clients are considering next steps.”

Bev Nance and Mary Walsh had applied to live at the Friendship Village senior living facility in Sunset Hill in 2016, their attorney, Julie Wilensky, told NBC News.

The request was denied by Friendship Village at the time because the community’s policy only allowed married couples who were in unions between “one man and one woman.”

Months later, Nance, 68, and Walsh, 72, brought a lawsuit against the community, accusing it of sex discrimination, which is a violation of the Fair Housing Act.

In her decision, Hamilton cited a 1989 ruling by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that is being challenged by the LGBTQ legal advocacy group Lambda Legal, NBC noted.