Tennessee Hardware Store puts up "no gays allowed" sign

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

inb4 shua tries to tell us that this guy clearly has no problem with gay people whatsoever

Actually I was planning on making a lame joke about either The Village People or North Caucasian Tartars.  But instead I'll sit here and wonder why you are incapable of making rather crucial distinctions.   This guy is not saying he won't make them a wedding ring out of electrical wire.  He does not want gays in his store at all.  I suppose unless he has well-developed gaydar the ban involves self-deportation.  The cops are not going to enforce this ban thankfully, and hopefully the only business he gets in the future is from complete flamers.  

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

His freedom of religion protects this expression of his spirituality and faith. You can't ask him to take down this sign, it's like asking an orthodox Jew to feed bacon to his baby.

There is no comparison between this person and someone like Baronelle Stutzman, who treats her gay customers and employees as human beings but does not believe in using her talents as directly part of a ceremony she believes is sacriligeous.  This guy is more like the person who sued her, as in both cases they treat people as means rather than as ends (full human beings in their complexity) in order to make a statement and advance their political agenda.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Within days, these owners will be millionaires just like sh**tty pizzeria from Indiana. I wish I owned a business and could scam right-wingers out of their money like this too.

The pizzeria got support because it closed down for a while after they were threatened with violence for responding to a hypothetical question asked by a reporter about catering a gay wedding.  They did not go out of their way to antagonize or make gays excluded.  That was not like this.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Within days, these owners will be millionaires just like sh**tty pizzeria from Indiana. I wish I owned a business and could scam right-wingers out of their money like this too.

The pizzeria got support because it closed down for a while after they were threatened with violence for responding to a hypothetical question asked by a reporter about catering a gay wedding.  They did not go out of their way to antagonize or make gays excluded.  That was not like this.

It's exactly like this. Some two-bit pizzeria realized all they had to do to become millionaires was say they don't like gays, and lo and behold, the money rolls in. It was obvious from the beginning that whatever local backlash they received would be more than made up for by the gullible Right.

We'll see if this hardware shop goes the same way, but I have no doubt the owner is trying for that.

That's a creative interpretation you got there.  Too bad it didn't make it onto the Snopes page about what really happened.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Within days, these owners will be millionaires just like sh**tty pizzeria from Indiana. I wish I owned a business and could scam right-wingers out of their money like this too.

The pizzeria got support because it closed down for a while after they were threatened with violence for responding to a hypothetical question asked by a reporter about catering a gay wedding.  They did not go out of their way to antagonize or make gays excluded.  That was not like this.

It's exactly like this. Some two-bit pizzeria realized all they had to do to become millionaires was say they don't like gays, and lo and behold, the money rolls in. It was obvious from the beginning that whatever local backlash they received would be more than made up for by the gullible Right.

We'll see if this hardware shop goes the same way, but I have no doubt the owner is trying for that.

That's a creative interpretation you got there.  Too bad it didn't make it onto the Snopes page about what really happened.

Obviously I can't prove the owners knew exactly what they were doing, but it didn't take a genius to know once the story broke that they would soon be set for life. And sure enough, they were.

It's equally obvious that this hayseed in Tennessee is trying to get a big payday with the same strategy, and he probably will.

So nice of the reporter to show up and start asking them questions about this issue. The death threats must have all been part of the plan too.  How deliciously devious.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Good to see the idiot owner adopting a somewhat more reasonable policy.  I'm still confused on how the selling of hardware has anything to do with homosexuality.

Doing business with someone can be considered endorsing their lifestyle choice, and also expose other customers with traditional values to a lifestyle choice they disagree with and which conflicts with their faith. We have to respect the freedom of conscience of the other customers of the store and members of the community who do not with to be implicated in sin nor have their children unexpectedly encounter people who are gay and get the wrong message about what's ok and not ok. What he's doing is legal, as others have said, and we have to consider this a legitimate expression of his religious faith (whatever that happens to be.)

We get it: you don't understand religion.