An Indiana Pizza Parlor that won’t cater same-sex weddings on religious grounds has become the latest martyr in the religious right’s war on gays and progressives. Look to see what they’re saying about the Left.
First there were anti-gay cake bakers, then anti-gay florists. Now the religious right’s latest anti-gay celebrity martyr is a pizza parlor.
Owners of Memories Pizza in the tiny town of Walkerton, Indiana – population: 2144 – made national headlines Wednesday when they told a local TV news station they couldn’t cater a same-sex wedding because of their religious beliefs, and they support Gov. Mike Pence’s controversial “religious freedom” law. In fact, they became the first business in the state to publicly use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as cover to support their policy, even if the example was hypothetical.
“If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no,” Crystal O’Connor told ABC 57 News. “We are a Christian establishment.”
They’ve faced a tremendous backlash, including harassing phone calls, negative reviews on Yelp and Facebook, and angry comments on Twitter. One high school coach was suspended for suggesting the pizza parlor be burned down.
The backlash has been so huge and immediate the family-owned business says they are forced to close their doors, at least for now, until the outrage subsides.
Conservative activist and Internet talk show host Dana Loesch has taken up their cause. Loesch, who has a show on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website spoke with Crystal O’Connor Wednesday evening.
“I don’t know if we will reopen, if we can,” O’Connor told Loesch, adding, “We’re in hiding, basically.”
Loesch says The Blaze set up a GoFundMe account for the O’Connor family. It’s received over $55,000 since Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the pizza parlor has become ground zero, and the latest martyr for the religious right, who are only too happy to use Memories Pizza as an excuse to spew their anti-gay, anti-liberal hate.
Note that most of these examples are not from random Twitter users, but from an American Family Association employee, two Fox News employees, and a right-wing blogger.
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Image: Screenshot via YouTubeÂ