An Avon, Indiana man says a local florist agreed to provide flowers for his wedding, even confirmed the date, until she learned there will be two grooms and no bride.
“She said, ‘What do you need?’ I said, ‘I need two boutonnieres.’ She then said, ‘What does the bride need?’ I said, ‘Well there is no bride.’ And then she said, ‘Well then I’m going on vacation. And I can’t help you.’ I then said ‘OK,’ and I walked out,” David Elliot told KRON.
Elliott says he’s not angry, and has not stated he intends to sue, “but he does feel like businesses should be able to fulfill requests like his without their personal beliefs getting in the way,” WTVA reports.
“Everyone has their beliefs, and you can believe whatever you want to believe,” Elliot says. “But if you’re working for the public and in the public, you should be able to set those aside for the public and for your job.”
Indiana is the state where, back in the Spring of 2015, then-Governor Mike Pence signed a bill into law that allowed anti-LGBT discrimination for those who wished to claim deeply held anti-LGBT religious or moral convictions. It was so nationally divisive that Pence had to urge lawmakers to pass a followup bill stating the original bill did not allow anti-LGBT discrimination – which was its sole purpose.
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The florist shop has said they have no comment.