Georgia Florists Tell CNN That God Granted Them The Right To Discriminate
Five separate bigoted floral businesses in the rural community of Jeff Davis County, Georgia proudly told CNN this week that they'd refuse service to a gay couple.
An Indiana-style "religious freedom" bill died in the Georgia House last week, but that doesn't affect these business owners, who say their orders come from a god who wishes they discriminate regardless of the law.
"The god I serve is much higher than any Supreme Court justice," said Carlton Jeffcoat, a floral shop employee currently studying to become a Southern Baptist pastor. "[Jesus] died on the cross for me, so that's the least I can do for him," his mother Melissa Jeffcoat added.
CNN's Gary Tuchman notes that while none of the businesses use (or understand, for that matter) the word discrimination, "they do indeed see the bill as a vehicle to legally deny service to gay people."
Asked by Tuchman to explain the Christian logic that allows her to discriminate against a gay couple, another shop employee named Jennifer Williams responded: "You can still love someone and not want to serve them. I love [gays], I pray for them."
"[Homosexuality] is a different kind of sin to me and I don't believe in it," Melissa Jeffcoat aded, saying she would serve an adulterer and someone who does not honor their parents over a gay person.
The consequences of their bigotry may soon rain down upon these businesses, as we saw earlier this week in Indiana. Memories Pizza, the first business in Indiana to make headlines for publicly refusing to serve LGBTs, closed shop yesterday after receiving what they described as "threatening" messages on social media.
