Creation Museum Date Night controversy

Political activist Joe Sonka, and his friend Brandon, conspired with Jonathan Meador, a staff writer for Leo Weekly, to attend the Creation Museum Date Night pretending to be a gay couple.

2011

• February 23. TPMMuckraker. New York City, New York. USA. Same-Sex 'Couple' Denied Entry To Creation Museum Date Night Event by David Taintor.
  "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."

• February 22. OneNewsNow.com. Tupelo, Mississippi. USA. 'Flamboyantly gay' couple turned away by Becky Yeh.

• February 21. WXIX, Channel 19, Fox. Cincinnati, Ohio. USA. Creation Museum denies alleged gay couple entrance to dinner by Stefano DiPietrantonio.
  "They were here to disrupt, they may say something else, but all you have to read is that January 13th blog," said Mark Looy, who is a spokesperson for The Creation Museum."
  "Since then, both of them admitted they are straight," Looy said. "It was a stunt, this is a manufactured story, to draw attention to themselves."

• February 21. WSCH-FM, 99.3. Lawrenceburg, Indiana. USA. Same Sex Couple Turned Away At Creation Museum.
  "Answers in Genesis said the museum has been tolerant and welcoming of gay couples since opening in 2007."
  "In the past, our staff has observed what they believed to be “gay” couples walking through the museum, and these guests were not approached (except in the rare instance where they were deemed to be acting in a disruptive manner). The Creation Museum has always welcomed individuals and groups who do not necessarily share our views."

• February 20. Louisville Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. USA. Louisville same-sex couple denied entrance to Creation Museum event by Mark Hansel, Cincinnati Enquirer.
  "Meador admitted the other member of the group, Joe Sonka, had posted a blog entry in January suggesting that it was the patriotic duty of his readers to send a flamboyantly gay couple to the event."

• February 20. Lebanon Daily News. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. USA. 2 men denied admission to event at Creation Museum via Associated Press.
  "A progressive blogger and another man who tried to go to a special event at Kentucky's Creation Museum said they were denied admission because they told security that they were a same-sex couple."
  "Sonka wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press that neither he nor the other man denied entry is gay."

• February 20. Bennington Banner. Bennington, Vermont. USA. 2 men denied admission to event at Creation Museum via Associated Press.
  "Looy defended the decision not to allow the two men in and cited a blog post that Sonka wrote in January, encouraging readers to raise money to send a "flamboyantly gay" couple to the event."

• February 20. Museums & Heritage magazine. Manchester, England. Same-sex couple denied museum entry.
  "Mark Looy, chief communications officer for the museum, claims that the marketing material explicitly said the event was for heterosexual couples only and involved a talk from museum founder Ken Ham, who is also the founder of Answers in Genesis-US and one of America’s most famous Christian speakers."

• February 20. Pasadena Star-News. Pasadena, California. USA. 2 men denied admission to event at Creation Museum via Associated Press.

• February 16. Leo Weekly. Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) an alternative newspaper. Louisville, Kentucky. USA. Date Night in the Garden of Eden by Jonathan Meador.
  "We knew that someone was coming to be flamboyant to essentially be disruptive,” Mark Looy, chief communications officer for the Creation Museum and its parent company, Answers in Genesis (AiG), tells LEO Weekly. “They were trying to stir things up, be disruptive,” he adds, claiming that Sonka wrote on his blog that he planned to crash the event."

• February 12. Pharyngula blog. Morris, Minnesota. USA. We missed Date Night at the Creation "Museum"! by PZ Myers.
  "If only I could learn about romance from a sleazy fundamentalist atavism with a neck beard."

• February 12. Panda's Thumb blog. USA. Answers in Genesis Steals Money from Couple by Reed A. Cartwright.<nr />"Answers in Genesis hosted a “date night” last night at their Kentucky Kreationism Komplex, where couples could attend a talk by Ken Ham, dine in the main hall, and attend a concert. Talk about romance! And since AiG has pledged to not discriminate in order to obtain government subsidies, we all expect them to welcome gay couples to their event, right?"

• February 12. Leo Weekly. Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) an alternative newspaper. Louisville, Kentucky. USA. Same sex couples denied entry to Creation Museum’s “Date Night” by Jonathan Meador.
  "Some attempts at backtracking were made: I said there had been a misunderstanding; that I didn’t say” partner” and meant that Joe and Brandon’s girlfriends had cancelled and that, ha ha, neither Joe nor Brandon was gay, but no dice: Just the suspicion of being gay was grounds enough to refuse paying customers access to Ham’s magical speech on biblical incest and how you should love your wife for who she is because, in time, she’ll be as ugly as her mother."