A gay couple told Good Morning Britain how they were recently refused a house because of their sexuality.
Lachlan Mantell and Luke Whitehouse told Susanna Reid and Ed Balls on the ITV programme that they had fell in love with a three-bed property worth £650,000 in Surrey.
The pair, who have been together for eight years, said they were interested in the house before the owners replied saying they were 'unwilling' to let them view it, let alone buy it.
READ MORE: Sainsbury's gives three day warning to anybody who shops or works there
The message read: "Dear Lachlan and Luke, thank you for sharing your circumstances with us.
"We’re sorry if we seem intrusive, but we just want to make clear that we would be unwilling for two men in a partnership to view or buy our house.
"As it is contrary to the gracious teaching in God’s Word, the Holy Bible, e.g. Romans 1:24-28 and Jude (King James Version). With regards Luke and Jo."
At first, 34-year-old business owner Luke thought the message was a joke but was left feeling disheartened when he realised it wasn't.
Lachlan, 37, told the presenters: "This has been a long time coming for us to get to this point in our lives where we’re ready to find a home and to have that reaction for literally the first property that we were going to look at was devastating."
Luke added: "They were asking odd questions and wanted to know a bit more about us as a couple, which we thought was a bit strange but because we hadn’t done it before we thought we’ll just let them know a bit more.
"So, we said we are in a relationship, Lachlan’s brother lives in the area so we were looking at buying there, and then they sent back the response saying they don’t even want us to view the house and quoted the Bible at us."
The couple went on to explain how it had upset them to have such a setback this early on their attempt to climb the property ladder.
The online estate agency, Purplebricks, has now removed the house from their website.
The company previously spoken of its disapproval at the attitudes shown in the text message in a tweet last week, where they said that the stance is completely opposed to their views and values.
Viewers took to social media to show their support for Luke and Lachlan over the situation.
One person said: "This saddens me. My whole family is Christian including myself and wouldn’t dream of discriminating anyone like this. It’s sad that this is still happening in the world today. Love is love."
Another added: "There is so much hate speech contained in all of the holy books. Why are we so scared to call out these teachings?"
A third explained: "Me and my partner went through sort of the same but was over the phone. The renter said is it just you and your girlfriend moving in? I answered saying no me and my boyfriend and the phone fell silent and call ended."
While a fourth penned: "Homophobia at its lowest level, God says we are all equal and love thy neighbour. This was not very Christian decision by the sellers."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
