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Religious Discrimination: Here We Go Again !

Religious Discrimination: Here We Go Again !

Last updated on: August 9, 2015 at 7:55 am by Lilith Dorsey

Religious Discrimination: Here We Go Again ! 2015-08-09T07:55:28-05:00 Lilith Dorsey

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It is with a heavy heart and a scratchy head that I write this post today. Many of you know in a few weeks I will be lecturing at an event called Hexfest. Designed as an exciting weekend of witchery in New Orleans the event will feature workshops, drumming and more. Originally the event was scheduled to have a Voodoo ritual on the Steamboat Natchez which as of yesterday became cancelled by the owners of the boat. Most likely this occurred for religious reasons, although they claim differently (the exact details can be read in the letter below.) We are still going to have the ritual anyway, you can’t keep good Voodoo people down and participants at the event will now get to enjoy the Creole Queen.

Yet many are up in arms, screaming “Oh my Gods ,” unfortunately I am sighing and saying here we go again. For those of us with darker skins and darker religions we are constantly forced to sit at the back of the bus, despite years of struggle and oppression. This hurts, not only as a person of color and a Voodoo priestess, and while I was not involved directly in facilitating this ritual, discrimination continues to effect all of us would were to be present, as well as the larger magickal community. We should not be silent. In my 20 years as a Voodoo priestess I have been called everything from the n-word, to relocated miles out of the way, even by other pagans. This can not continue, let’s everyone open our eyes. Thank you.

Organizers Christian Day and Brian Cain’s letter to the parent company of the Steamboat Natchez, Grey Line

Dear Grey Line,

It is with great sadness and concern that inform you that my business partner, Brian Cain, and I, as well as all of the attendees of our event, HexFest, have been discriminated against by the Steamboat Natchez for our religion of Witchcraft which itself is recognized as a legal religion in the United States of America (see the following law memorandum at http://www.paganmade.com/temple/download/ckhtlawmem.pdffor details on this).

On the morning of August 7th, the coordinator of our event, Ty Siddiqui and I spoke on the phone with Deidra Edwards, Director of Sales for the Steamboat Natches, which is itself owned by your Grey Line NOLA affiliate. Ty and I were informed by Ms. Edwards that the owner of the boat had just found out about our Riverboat Ritual conducted by a Voodoo Priestess and featuring drummers and that he was canceling it for “religious reasons.” The website describing it been up for over a year and we had explained everything that was going to be going on to Deidra on the phone and even referred to components such as drumming and voodoo in emails back and forth, none of which she expressed concern over because we had already discussed this by phone. Moreover, the Voodoo Priestess in question, national television personality “Bloody Mary,” has been hired by Grey Line NOLA for numerous events on the boat through the years and, according to Mary, even our shop has supplied services for Mary in helping to entertain guests on the boat. In spite of all of this, Deidra Edwards informed Ty and me by phone that the owner wanted nothing with Witches or Voodoo for “religions reasons.” In addition to this being incredibly discriminatory, it also put us in a precarious position given that this was two weeks before the event.

Thankfully, we are now at the Creole Queen and Deidra did help with that so perhaps she feels some shame at the actions of the owner of her company. However, after she and the owner met with their lawyer, Deidra has revised the reason we were being cancelled, never having admitted in writing to the “religious reasons” she spoke of to Ty Siddiqui and I on the phone, but rather is now stating that they are canceling the contract because we violated it by having a drumming on the boat that they were unapproved and by selling tickets to “non-members” of our organization, both prohibited by their contract. However, I had addressed the membership piece of the contract by phone and Deidra had said that said that this didn’t apply to us since we were a public event and not a membership organization to begin with. I also have emails back and forth referring to the drummers on the boat and to the Voodoo priestess and blessing she was doing and never once did Deidra act surprised by this, presumably because we had already discussed it by phone. Deidra Edwards knew all along that this was an event that sold to the public and that we were having drummers and a Voodoo priestess and that the event was for Witches. If she had an issue with the drummers or the public event, both of which they knew about, why wait until two weeks before the event to cancel? This is appalling. I realize she kept the owner out of the loop but he should have at least had the good grace to treat us as a customer and allow us to have our event at least for this year so we would have time to plan for next year’s event in June, where we would happily rather go to the Creole Queen than be somewhere we are not wanted.

I have worked in tourism for thirteen years. I sat on the Board of Directors for the official office of tourism of Salem, Massachusetts. I have been an ambassador for tourism in both cities with appearances on Showtime, The Wall Street Journal, TLC, BBC, The New York Times, The Travel Channel (multiple times), and more. To treat us this way at the last minute, causing us to incur numerous costs such as flyer reprinting, several staff members allocated to calling attendees and presenters to make sure they know the location of the other riverboat, which is also much further away from the hotel we are at. There’s a good chance we would have changed hotels if we knew we were going to be at the Creole Queen.

Perhaps most disappointing about this is that it has put is in a compromising position with our guests, who now have to walk a mile from the hotel or rely on cabs that there may not be enough of in order to reach the new location which is 3/4 of a mile further away. We take our relationship with our guests seriously and we believe that the Steamboat Natchez and Grey Line Tours NOLA should take their customer relationships seriously as well. It is deeply distressing to think that they could treat this so cavalierly.

We have shared this with my combined 60,000 fans on social media across numerous pages for our three retail shops between Massachusetts and New Orleans, our walking tour company, and our two festivals. We are hopeful that Grey Line national will disassociate with this affiliate as not doing so constitutes support of this type of discrimination.

I would like to leave you with this quote by our mayor here in New Orleans, from his own Executive Order on discrimination in the Crescent City:

“With this executive order, I am issuing a clarifying call to the nation that New Orleans is an accepting, inviting city that thrives on its diversity and welcomes people from all walks of life with open arms,” said Mayor Landrieu. “In New Orleans, we believe religious liberty and freedoms should be protected and discrimination prohibited, and we have passed our own laws to reflect that principle. This executive order is an important, symbolic affirmation that discrimination in any form will not be tolerated in New Orleans – and it should not be tolerated anywhere in Louisiana.”

From: http://www.nola.gov/mayor/press-releases/2015/20150521-executive-order/

We hope you can reach out to us to discuss this.

Regards,

Christian Day and Brian Cain
HexFest – www.hexfest.com
Hex: Old World Witchery – www.hexwitch.com
Omen – www.omensalem.com
Festival of the Dead – www.festivalofthedead.com

Note: The comments on this post were closed because they were taking a direction that was not entirely germane to the topic. I would be happy to post responses from anyone directly involved in this matter. Please email me- Lilith Dorsey directly at [email protected]

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