Gay couple banned from buying home by Christian owners share story with Good Morning Britain
Luke Whitehouse and Lachlan Mantell shared their story on Good Morning Britain, where Mantell works as a Senior Producer.
By Will Stroude
Words: Will Stroude; Image: YouTube, Good Morning Britain
A gay couple who were prevented from buying a home because of their sexuality have opened up about the ordeal on Good Morning Britain.
Luke Whitehouse, 34, and Lachlan Mantell, 37, hit the headlines earlier this week after revealing that a Christian couple had banned them from purchasing or even viewing their three-bedroom house in Surrey.
In a message to Luke and Lachlan – who have been together for eight years – builder Luke Main, 33, and Cambridge University medical physicist Dr Joanna Brunker, 34, said they were “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.”
Main and Brunker later told the Daily Mail they were not “ashamed” of what they had said “in any way”.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls on Tuesday (25 January), Lachlan – who works as a Senior Producer on the breakfast news show – described the incident as “devastating”, adding that his mother was “heartbroken” at the way they’d been treated.
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“Literally, she was in floods of tears”, he recalled. “To follow our journey for eight years, but obviously as her son, realising what a huge step this was for me personally, and to be faced with that, she was devastated. I actually didn’t want to tell her this had happened.”
Lachlan and Luke reported the incident to the estate website Purple Bricks, who immediatley removed Main and Brunker’s property as a listing.
Good Morning Britain also heard from barrister Naomi Cunningham, who said it was her view that Main and Brunker’s behaviour would fall under unlawful discrimination as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by Reid whether they had considered legal action against the Christian house-sellers, Luke replied: “We haven’t really though about it, have we? I think it was more about raising awareness on this issue.
“I felt quite naive in thinking that homophobia wasn’t really out there anymore, and it was a bit of a slap in the face to realise that it actually is.”
He added: “It’s so easy to brush it undet the carpet as well and not say anything. We could have easily read it and put it down and forget about it, but we felt we needed to do something about, or try to.”
Watch Luke and Lachlan share their story on Good Morning Britain below: