Gay South Side pastor claims discrimination after venue says 'you cannot host your event here'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Less than two hours before Powerhouse Church of Chicago was set to host their event at The CityLight Church on the South Side Sunday, they had to scramble to find another venue.

Bishop Keith McQueen, who leads the church, calls it discrimination.

"We received the call stating that we researched your church online. We see that you have openly gay members, that the pastor -- myself of course, I'm openly gay and I'm married to a man -- You cannot host your event here," he said.

He said they found the venue on Peerspace, which is a platform that people can find rentable spaces.

"We were only going to host a worship service. We weren't hosting a gay pride event. We weren't hosting an event with a political agenda. It was strictly just to worship God," McQueen said.

They normally host worship service at their building in the Englewood neighborhood but McQueen said they needed a larger space for service last Sunday.

Due to the last-minute cancellation, they switched back to their church building.

"Just because you are a church doesn't give you permission to practice discriminatory practices," McQueen said.

The CityLight Church said in a statement "We accept or respectfully decline requests based on considerations such as our capacity to accommodate the request, the availability of hosting personnel, the timing of the request, adherence to the policies that govern the use of the property in our bylaws as a religious body, or conflicts with our own scheduled programs as a church. This is made very clear in our rental policy."

A Peerspace spokesperson said the platform has a no discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation. The spokesperson also said the booking for the the CityLight venue moved off their platform, which also goes against their guidelines.

McQueen said he plans to file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

Powerhouse has scheduled a peaceful protest at their church Sunday.

"We've been through things like this before unfortunately. And we've experienced discrimination since our beginning. But that won't stop us," McQueen said.