ABC57.com
A Walkerton, Indiana, pizza shop is the state’s first business to declare it will not service gay weddings after the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was signed into law last week. “If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no,” Memories Pizza’s Crystal O’Connor told a local news station. “We are a Christian establishment.” However, gay couples—like those of other faiths—are welcome to patronize the establishment on non-matrimonial occasions. “I don’t think it’s discrimination,” she told the news station. “It’s supposed to help people that have a religious belief.”
When contacted by The Daily Beast, Memories Pizza owner Kevin O’Connor said he didn’t expect the statements to become a national story when the local news crew walked into his shop to ask questions Wednesday.
“I don’t have a problem with gay people, I do not condone gay marriage and that’s what I said,” he said. “I don’t turn anybody away from the store, I don’t have a problem with gay people. I just don’t condone the marriage.”
O’Connor said he’s never been asked to cater a wedding, and that the response was hypothetical in response to questions posed by the news crew.
“It’s hard to speak when things get taken so out of context and this thing goes sky high and just blows everything up,” he said. “I’ve got a family to think about, too.”
O’Connor also said that he had never been faced with a conflict with his religious beliefs in his line of work.
“I mean, we don’t believe in murder. I also don’t believe in abortion,” he said when asked about other events he would feel conflicted about providing services for. When asked about pizza for weddings with divorced couples, O’Connor paused.
“You know, that’s something that I don’t have figured out in my own mind yet,” he said. “Because I’m divorced. So that’s something I don’t have figured out.”
— Reporting by Katie Zavadski