Indiana Pizza Restaurant Closes After Sexual Orientation Controversy
You’ve probably heard the news by now. An Indiana pizza parlor called, “Memories” was interviewed recently for a local news station. During that interview, they were asked if they would ever cater to a gay wedding. When their response was simply, “no” based on religion, locals became outraged.
Since the controversy busted onto the scene, suspiciously, the pizza parlor has raised almost half a million dollars on a “support us” GoFundMe page. The GoFundMe was launched on April first, but this controversy has been going on for days prior. Originally set up by one of the contributors for the interview, there is suspicion about the page in general.
According to Lawrence Jones from BlazeTV, the pizza parlor never once turned away anyone, but only answered a hypothetical question asked by a news reporter. When defending their answer, they stated they weren’t discriminating against anyone. Hypothetical or not, a certain type of person WOULD be denied services because of their sexual orientation. The definition of discrimination is the unjust treatment against different categories of people or things.
Many commenters on the Internet have been suspicious, thinking this is a marketing and publicity stunt for money. The main reason being, why would they randomly ask a company if they would cater to a gay couple if they don’t publically put forth their religion in their business?
Protestors have been marching and publically crying out against the “hypothetical” business practices of Memories, but this led to almost an immediate “fix” in the religious freedom law alongside the temporary close of the pizza restaurant.
Gov. Mike Pence originally signed the religious freedom law in, but has since thought about what is best for Indiana. According to Gov. Pence, “There will be some who think this legislation goes too far and some who think it does not go far enough, but as governor I must always put the interest of our state first and ask myself every day, ‘What is best for Indiana?'” he said. “I believe resolving this controversy and making clear that every person feels welcome and respected in our state is best for Indiana.”
This prohibits businesses from denying services such as public accommodations, goods, employment, housing, etc., to customers based on their religion, ancestry, age, origin, race, disability, position in military, etc. While there is no specific change added for sexual orientation, legislators said that it will be coming soon. House Speaker Brian Bosma says that the law needs to be discussed. Bosma also stated that the law was originally “misinterpreted”.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t about the pizza; this controversy was about the behavior or potential behavior of an establishment and how they treat someone willing to give money for their services. Pizza is fantastic, but so is great service. Pizza doesn’t care about sexual orientation and neither should anyone else.
While everyone should have religious freedom, where does one draw the line so everyone is happy in the land of the free? Should the law make it so that religion must only be practiced outside of business hours? Should people put their religious differences aside and serve everyone on the basis of love and tolerance?What do you believe is the happy medium for both parties?
Date Modified - 03/23/2024