The pizzeria that publicly admitted that it would refuse services to gay and lesbian couples because of the owners’ religious beliefs has managed to raise over $800,000 in donations on a crowdfunding site.
Both Crystal and Kevin O‘Connor stated their discomfort with gay and lesbian couples and that they would refuse to serve at a same-sex wedding, with Mr O’Connor even going as far as to describe homosexuality as a “choice”, and questioning why he should be “beat over the head to go along with something they choose?”.
The family allegedly went into hiding due to ‘abuses’ levied at the business, which included leaving ‘gay reviews’ on Yelp and other review sites. However, according to Blaze.TV the family have made a stunning ‘comeback’ after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from well-wishers across the country.
Lawrence Billy Jones III one of the Television Opinion Contributors at BlazeTV set up a crowdfunding, on GoFundme, “To relieve the financial loss endured by the proprietors’ stand for faith.”
The funder that has now been closed received over 29,000 donations totalling $842,637 (£564,770) to the owners of Memories Pizza. Donations began to pour in after a segment on an emotionally led interview on BlazeTV’s Dana Loesch’s show, in which the gun loving, conservative commentator called the O’Connor’s story a “culture war” – and “when you stand for faith, you don’t stand alone.”
According to the organisers of the funding page “The final act on our end is to give contact info of the O’Connor family to GoFundMe. No need for concern as GoFundMe will only release to this family and this family alone. After this, it is all between the family and GoFundMe.”
GoFundme, the crowdfunding site that hosted the campaign initially failed to tackle any of the homophobic comments made by pledgers.
Brett Jeffreyes who donated $250 said,
“Sadly this is the first wave. We are seeing the rise of GAY SHARIA. They will go to any length to destroy people of conscience and good will. I expect to see Gay Sharia violence supported by both Social and mainstream Media in my lifetime.”
And Brennan Doherty who donated $10 said,
“God bless them for not agreeing to support the farce of gay marriage.”
Comments have now been removed and all donations are registered as “anonymous”.
First-term Republican Governor Mike Pence has now signed a ‘fix’ to the law so that it does not discriminate against the LGBT community. He has insisted, however, that the law wasn’t the problem, but how it was being perceived. The law now has protections based on sexual orientation for the first time in its history.
