Watch as a Tennessee store owner defends displaying a “No Gays Allowed” sign in his store window. “They gladly stand for what they believe in, why can’t I?”Â
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling that marriage equality is the law of the land, Jeff Amyx, the owner of Amyx Hardware and Roofing Supplies in Washburn, Tennessee, proudly displayed a “No Gays Allowed†sign in the front of his business.
“They gladly stand for what they believe in, why can’t I?” Amyx told WBIR. “They believe their way is right, I believe it’s wrong. But yet I’m going to take more persecution than them because I’m standing for what I believe in.”
The community quickly retaliated against the storeowner on social media. The company’s page on Yellow Pages is now filled with one star reviews and cheeky comments such as, “Tried ordering saloon doors for a remodel job. Owner said he didn’t sell doors that swung both ways,†and “I went in and asked for a stopcock and a reamer. They threw me out!†A boycott page has also been set up on Facebook.
On Tuesday, the sign was replaced with a new sign stating, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone who would violate our rights of freedom of speech & freedom of religion.” Amyx added his signature on the bottom of the sign.
Amyx, claims he has nothing against “the homosexual people,” as he told WATE, and according to the New York Daily News, he has offered to read gay people passages from the Bible at his store.
“I don’t hate people,” Amyx said. “It’s not the people I hate, it’s the sin that I hate.”
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Image: Screenshot via WATE