Pa. pastor says women banned from fishing trip to avoid ‘sexual scandals and accusations’

A Fayette County woman who won a spot on a men-only fishing trip was told her raffle ticket was invalid out of a fear of “sexual scandals and accusations” that may arise.

Emmy Smaniotto, an avid outdoors enthusiast, said she just wanted to go fishing. She attended the wild-game dinner at Bethel Baptist Church in Uniontown on Saturday night, a tradition with her father, and dropped some $10 tickets in various raffle bags.

“The guest pastor had mentioned that there would be guys-only fishing trips to take a chance on winning stating ‘make sure you leave those wives at home.’ Ok I thought — is this a joke or?” Smaniotto wrote in a Facebook post Sunday that is no longer visible, either because it has been deleted or restricted.

Smaniotto, who could not immediately be reached for comment, said in the post that she saw another woman put a ticket in the fishing-trip bag, so she did too.

When the other woman’s name was called, the speaker retracted the name and pulled another ticket. Then Smaniotto’s name was called and also declined.

“I have hunted and fished with many men in my lifetime and have been treated with respect while in the field – would this not be the same case if I attended the ‘church’ fishing event?” Smaniotto wrote.

In his own Facebook post about the raffle, the Rev. Bryan Kelley said the women knew the stipulations before entering the trip raffle, which was organized by a third party. That individual was not named.

Kelley suggested that the mere presence of a woman could turn the trip sordid.

“Living in the days of sexual scandals and accusations many pastors including myself, take the personal position that we will not put ourselves in a position that could bring about a false accusation and thus bring a multitude of problems, hence why he personally offered them for men only,” Kelley wrote on the church’s Facebook page Monday.

Kelley, in his post, said he tried, unsuccessfully, to reach out to Smaniotto, after learning she was “offended.” He said the man offering the prize is willing to take Smaniotto and her father on a trip.

“The church highly respects all women and would by no means do anything intentional to make one feel they were discriminated against and once again express our deepest apologies to the young lady and will exercise greater caution moving forward,” he wrote.

While some defended the church on Facebook, others called the actions misogynistic.

“The first 2 names pulled were women?” one woman commented. “That’s amazing! It sounds like God really wanted you to include women.”