A married lesbian couple have called for diners to stay away from a cafe after the owner handed them a letter saying homosexuality is a sin. 

Ariel and Shawnee McPhail said they had lunch in seafood restaurant The Stingray Café, North Carolina, before they were targeted by the restaurant's owner Ed McGovern after they paid. 

The women told wcti12.com   the letter was offensive and they wanted to stop it happening to other gay people in the area so were calling on customers to stay away. 

'If we're experiencing it, then other people are too and that's not fair,' said Ariel McPhail.

'We ask that anyone who agrees not go,' Shawnee McPhail added. 

McGovern confirmed to the channel he had sent the letter, adding it was written 'out of love'