James Fairbanks and Alain Beret were planning to purchase a mansion and surrounding property from the Diocese of Worcester in Northbridge, MA, in hopes of renovating it into a banquet hall, and the deal was negotiated.
Last month, the pair was notified they’d have to renegotiate because of additional costs for a sprinkler system, so they made a new offer that should have satisfied everyone, but the diocese suddenly backed out to pursue “other plans.”
Monsignor Thomas Sullivan, who overseas property sales for the diocese explained that Fairbanks and Beret “couldn’t come up with the money,” but he accidentally included an email to the broker with a very different explanation:
I just went down the hall and discussed it with the bishop. Because of the potentiality of gay marriages there, something you shared with us yesterday, we are not interested in going forward with these buyers. I think they’re shaky anyway. So, just tell them that we will not accept their revised plan and the Diocese is making new plans for the property. You find the language.Beret and Fairbanks never declared that they were married, but even if they were not gay, the potentiality for same-sex marriages to take place at the mansion would be no different.
Massachusetts law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and Beret says he will fight: “For the sake of my dignity, I’m not walking away.”