A church-going wife who banned a gay man and his ITV producer partner from buying her £650,000 Surrey home has hit back in the row and insisted they are just sticking to their beliefs.
Luke Whitehouse, Lachlan Mantell and their agent were shocked to learn that the Christian owners wouldn’t sell the home to them.
They tried to set up a viewing via Purplebricks internet agents, but were turned down. The couple sent them astonishing references to Bible verses about fire and brimstone.
Luke Main (33) and Joanna Brunker (34), the builders, wouldn’t let Luke and Joanna view the house or buy it.
The couple cited Bible passages and stated that they couldn’t sell the house to “two men in partnership.”
Dr Brunker retorted today. He said: “We wouldn’t sell our house to two men in partnership. We are practicing Christians, and we have not done any wrong.
She added that her husband was not ashamed of the things he said.
Luke Whitehouse, his partner Lachlan Manntell (pictured) were informed they could not view the property because they hadn’t seen it. The owners weren’t willing to sell to a homosexual couple
Luke Main (left), 33, a builder, and his wife, ex-Cambridge University medical physicist Dr Joanna Brunker (right) said they were against selling their home to ‘two men in a partnership’
The Christian couple’s property (pictured) was advertised with a guide price of £650,000
Purplebricks has taken the ad off their website and informed the Mains that Luke’s message was “completely contrary” to their firm’s values.
Remembering the events of the row, Luke (34), told MailOnline that he laughed for 10 seconds at first. It was funny to me.
“But then, I became angry and upset. I called my mom and had a good cry. The stigma of homophobia is still prevalent. It was not something I expected. It blindsided me.
Luke and Lachlan (37-year-olds) had planned to visit the Surrey house last week. They have been married for eight years.
The Mains contacted them to request a viewing.’.
Lachlan was happy to answer their questions, telling them that he is a TV producer at ITV aged 37 and Luke is an education-business owner of 33 years.
The Christian couple responded with a shocking response: “Dear Lachlan, Luke, we are grateful that you shared your situation with us.
“We are sorry to be intrusive but we want to let you know that two men would not view our home or purchase it.
“As it is in contradiction to God’s grace teaching, the Holy Bible. Regards
Luke, 34 and Lachlan (37), have been married for eight years. They told MailOnline they were shocked that the property was not open to them.
Gay couple saw the Rightmove ad for the semi-detached property with three bedrooms.
Lachlan and Luke sent messages to each other through the Purplebricks site. They tried to schedule a visit to the property at a specific time.
Lachlan, Luke, and Lachlan were asked to elaborate on their situations by the Christians. However, it soon became apparent that they were in a sexual relationship. The homeowners decided to cancel the booking.
This is the first Bible verse that was cited.
‘They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
God gave them to their shameful lusts because of that. Their women even exchanged unnatural sexual relationships for natural ones.
“In the exact same way, men were also unable to have natural relationships with women and inflamed into lust for one other. Men were guilty of committing shameful acts towards other men. They also received the penalty.
“Furthermore,” God allowed them to surrender to depraved minds so they could do the wrong thing.
Purplebricks informed Mr Main’s wife and him of their decision to not list the property.
The second is: ‘Even Sodom, Gomorrha, the cities around them in the same manner, giving themselves up to fornication (and going after strange flesh) are set forth as an example, suffering vengeance from eternal fire.
Luke reported the matter to Rightmove’s online estate agents, who sold it.
Now they have decided to stop selling the property because of the negative comments made by the owners.
Purplebricks’ spokesperson said: “Thanks Lachlan for sharing this message, and we are so sorry you have had this experience.
“This position is totally against our values and views. Purplebricks does not wish to sell it, so we will reimburse the seller’s fee.
Luke and Lachlan are originally from Adelaide Australia. They want their own home after being separated by the pandemic.
He explained that they were split during Covid. While I was visiting America, he was still in America. We were then forced to separate. We had wanted to buy a house for many years. We had only one house in mind that we wanted to view. It was something we were excited to do this weekend.
He said, “Since my coming out eight years ago, I haven’t come across any descrimation.” I was probably discriminated against, but it wasn’t something that I knew about.
MailOnline was reached by Mr Main, left. He said that he’d have to speak with Ms Brunker. But that they were not ashamed of their positions.
Luke posted his disgust on Facebook and called it’shockingly disgusting’
Purplebricks responded that this stance was “completely against our views”.
Luke from Putney in south-west London, a business owner, said that they would not buy the property or view it even if owners offered to apologise and change their minds.
He said, “We’ll look for another thing now.”
“We won’t let that affect our efforts to purchase a home.”
Purplebricks stated that it did not know of the messages sent to Luke by Lachlan sellers until it was reported.
According to the estate agent, it responded as quickly as possible and said that staff believed it was a company that celebrates diversity.
Purplebricks spokeswoman said that the sentiments in this message were completely against Purplebricks values and views.
“We have reached out to the seller in order to request a refund of their fees and that they use a different agent to sell their property.”
This incident recalls the 2014 “gay-cake row” in Belfast, when a bakery refused a cake with the words “support gay marriage”.
Ashers Bakers won the Supreme Court’s case against them in 2018. They argued that no one could force someone to support a belief with which they were deeply disagreeable.
Stonewall campaigners condemn the action of the couple.
Sasha Misra (Associate Director of Communications and Campaigns, Stonewall) stated that “It’s shocking” to hear that gay couples were prevented from purchasing a property due their sexual orientation. Gay individuals should be allowed to own or rent any property they wish. However, they should expect no discrimination because they are gay. These situations are reminiscent of a time when discriminating against lesbians, gay, bi, or transgender people was commonplace.
The views of Ms Brunker, Mr Main on gay relationships have been expressed before. Both of them addressed a House of Lords Committee with their ideas on how to handle the topic in relationship education in schools in 2019.
Main stated that he was grateful to Mr Main for providing parents with the opportunity to express their opinion on the proposed Statutory Instrument.
The case is similar to that of Christian bakers Daniel McArthur (pictured), who refused to decorate a cake made by an activist for gay marriage.
Belfast’s bakers were unable to create a cake with the words “Support Gay Marriage” (photo: Another bakery made a cake similar in design).
2017: UK Supreme Court ruling that Gareth Lee (Northern Ireland’s gay rights activist) was not discriminated against because of the Christian bakers stance
‘I am only a 30 year-old man with 13 siblings. It is my concern that others and they are not being taught lessons which can be detrimental to society. Our society and future generations will suffer from the evils of secular and liberal ideas that have taken over the world today. It is sad that the state would want to teach children about relationships, which I find unacceptable. It is almost draconian to say that parents are not allowed to take their children away from these lessons.
“I’d be grateful if your consideration would be given to my suggestion, which would have been to carefully compare the proposed teaching material with the Holy Bible on which our Constitution is founded, then consider the fact that this violates parents rights in raising their children and to impose teaching which is unnecessary but also dangerous and harmful.
“I pray that you will receive wisdom and help from God in this matter and to bring it up to a point which will please Him: Romans 14.12” Dr Brunker stated: “I’m very worried about the law above.
I find it particularly uncomfortable for children between 4 and 11 years to be forced to understand about the non-traditional family, sexual identity, and relationships. Parents have the right to raise their children in certain beliefs. This Relationships Education should be available to parents at minimum.
Please vote against the Statutory Instrument in order to prevent our children being stolen from parents and sold into a state-decreed thinking style. We cannot afford to suppress freedom of opinion and belief. This is why we are a multi-cultural and healthy society.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns.
Main, who is listed as a director at LM Buildscapes Ltd. in 2011 but whose Transit van still bears the name of LM Buildscapes.
She was a doctoral student at University College London and appeared as a postdoctoral associate for research at the Department of Physics at Cambridge.
She currently appears as staff at the Synthetic Biology Interdisciplinary Research Centre of Cambridge University, however MailOnline knows that she has now left this position.