In the wake of a media firestorm raging against the Christian owners of a bridal shop who refused to supply wedding dresses for lesbian brides, the town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania is debating a possible law on whether shop owners have a right to refuse business to customers.
Breitbart News reported last month that when Victoria and Thomas Miller, owners of the W.W. Bridal Boutique in Bloomsburg refused to provide wedding dresses to lesbian brides because of their religious beliefs, they were bullied on social media and their website had been hacked to suggest their store had closed under pressure from same-sex marriage supporters.
— Dwayne Heisler (@dwayneheisler) August 27, 2014
" layout="responsive" width="600" height="480">Subsequent to Breitbart News’ report, CNS News.com identified G. Andrea Shay as the woman who called W.W. Bridal Boutique to schedule an appointment to order two wedding dresses as well as “dresses for the groomsmen.”
CNS News.com reports:
“I was put on hold for about 5 minutes so the lady could get her appointment book. She took me off hold and said unfortunately she would not be able to schedule an appointment for us because they currently do not service same sex couples and it’s just not something they do,” Shay reportedly said in a Facebook post.
Calling the shop “strange and rude,” she added:
My husband and I tried to give W. W. Bridal our business, but when the management found out that we needed to order a wedding gown for my husband, and dresses for the groomsmen, they would not allow us to order from them claiming that such a thing would “Break God’s Law.” So they do not want money from people who enjoy cross-dressing. They insisted that we “Must be gay,” since we wear clothing of the opposite sex. Very strange and rude management.
CNS News.com reported Thomas Miller’s comments to local newspaper Press Enterprise, in which he noted that recently the shop had inadvertently accepted an order for a wedding dress from a same-sex couple.
“We faced the gay marriage issue knowingly for the first time in June of this year, when one of our employees accepted a wedding dress order from a gay couple,” Miller wrote. “When we realized what had happened, we decided that we had an obligation to follow through for them.”
“We will complete the order we received in June or provide a full refund,” he added. “The choice is theirs. W.W. Bridal has never failed to honor a commitment.”
Miller continued:
But, now we had to decide whether or not our conscience and faith would allow us to participate in future gay and lesbian weddings. To be clear, our objection is not at all directed to gays or lesbians as individuals. We will sell our products to gay individuals. It is our participation in the marital process between same sex couples which we concluded to be a violation of a sacred tenant of our religious faith, which is that a marriage is a commitment between a male and a female.
“The gay and lesbian community has won a hard-fought battle to protect their liberty and rights to pursue happiness,” Miller said. “But, does that give gay activists the right to take our liberty and to restrain our right to pursue our religious faith as we see fit?”
The town’s Community and Economic Development Committee (CEDC) has now begun meetings to review the proposal, brought by gay activist and Democrat State Committee member Dwayne Heisler and his supporters, for an ordinance that would specifically ban businesses in the town from discriminating against LGBT customers.
Peter Kendron, Bloomsburg reporter for the Press Enterprise tweeted out comments from the first CEDC meeting held last week. Kendron noted that Al Luschas, attorney for the W.W. Bridal Boutique owners, said his clients and their children were also threatened with rape.
According to Bloomsburg Town Council Administrator William Lowthert, however, Heisler’s proposal may have an uphill climb to become an ordinance.
“Bloomsburg is the only town in the state of Pennsylvania,” Lowthert told Breitbart News on Friday. “Various codes are assigned to ‘towns,’ ‘townships,’ ‘boroughs,’ or ‘cities,’ and our ‘town’ has a fairly small code that does not legally give us the authority to adopt such an ordinance.”
Lowthert added that the town’s attorney said Bloomsburg would first have to adopt a section of code that would enable it to have such legal authority.
“Other communities who have adopted such ordinances are not ‘towns,'” he said. “Some have been under the impression that this proposal would be immediately adopted.”
Lowthert said about 50 people attended the CEDC meeting and that both sides were heard. No decisions were made, he added, and another meeting for continued discussion is scheduled.
“Some people feel such an ordinance is necessary,” Lowthert continued. “The audience was evenly split in terms of opinions.”
Lowthert said those opposed to the ordinance based their comments on separation of church and state, religious issues, the First Amendment, and their belief that town government shouldn’t be delving into this issue because business owners have the right to conduct business with whom they please.