Florist Sued for Refusing Service to Gay Couple Pens Defiant Letter Rejecting Gov’t Settlement Offer

[TemplarKormac]

Gad. They would make a fortune. Look at what happened to Chick fil A and Masterpiece bakery.

Chik fil A does not discriminate against homosexuals.

Er, then why were homosexuals wanting to boycott them?

 

[TemplarKormac]

If gays want their own flowers, they should buy seeds, plant them and grow them.

If gays want a picture taken, they can get their own camera and a freaking selfie stick.

If gays want cakes or cupcakes, Betty Crocker would most certainly love their business.

 

[PaintMyHouse]

If gays want their own flowers, they should buy seeds, plant them and grow them.

If gays want a picture taken, they can get their own camera and a freaking selfie stick.

If gays want cakes or cupcakes, Betty Crocker would most certainly love their business.

Yeah, doesn't work that way, that's your child's fantasy not reality.

 

[Katzndogz]

If gays want their own flowers, they should buy seeds, plant them and grow them.

If gays want a picture taken, they can get their own camera and a freaking selfie stick.

If gays want cakes or cupcakes, Betty Crocker would most certainly love their business.

The ones who would really love the business are those that spend advertising dollars saying Same sex weddings a specialty.

Gays don't want to go to those businesses. They will ferret out the only Christian in town just to complain.

 

[PaintMyHouse]

If gays want their own flowers, they should buy seeds, plant them and grow them.

If gays want a picture taken, they can get their own camera and a freaking selfie stick.

If gays want cakes or cupcakes, Betty Crocker would most certainly love their business.

The ones who would really love the business are those that spend advertising dollars saying Same sex weddings a specialty.

Gays don't want to go to those businesses. They will ferret out the only Christian in town just to complain.

Your homophobia makes you irrational.

 

[Syriusly]

One day a gay couple is going to choose a Christian baker or florist and get told "Because of the loss of artistic and religious freedom to the gay mafia's demands I no longer offer wedding services. Would you like some brownies?"

Go for it.

It has to happen. Christians won't be persecuted forever.

Christians = persecuted because they are being told to follow the same law that protects Christians.

Oh the persecution!

 

[bendog]

It's an art form to put those two little grooms on the cake.

 

[LittleNipper]

Sometimes it's vital.

It's vital to pay a woman less than a man, simply because she's a woman? I understand the point you're aiming at, but I also think you're intentionally addressing a different point than where I was going. Moving on...

How about religion? Is religion immutable? Is discrimination based on religion okay?

Truth is immutable. And religion based on TRUTH is immutable. If a police officer locks up a killer, isn't he in fact discriminating against that person. The truth is that homosexuality is as much an issue as alcoholism. Society gains nothing by indulging problems.

 

[bodecea]

Yo, she needs to find a judge that agrees with her, like your boy Obama does?

"GTP"

"boy"?

If gays want their own flowers, they should buy seeds, plant them and grow them.

If gays want a picture taken, they can get their own camera and a freaking selfie stick.

If gays want cakes or cupcakes, Betty Crocker would most certainly love their business.

If minorities want to be served in restaurants they can start their own.
If women want to vote, they can start their own country.
If Rosa Parks want to ride in front, she can start her own bus company.

 

[bodecea]

If gays want their own flowers, they should buy seeds, plant them and grow them.

If gays want a picture taken, they can get their own camera and a freaking selfie stick.

If gays want cakes or cupcakes, Betty Crocker would most certainly love their business.

The ones who would really love the business are those that spend advertising dollars saying Same sex weddings a specialty.

Gays don't want to go to those businesses. They will ferret out the only Christian in town just to complain.

There's only one Christian in that town? Fascinating.

 

[TemplarKormac]

One day a gay couple is going to choose a Christian baker or florist and get told "Because of the loss of artistic and religious freedom to the gay mafia's demands I no longer offer wedding services. Would you like some brownies?"

Go for it.

It has to happen. Christians won't be persecuted forever.

Christians = persecuted because they are being told to follow the same law that protects Christians.

Oh the persecution!

The persecution here is from our government. The law that 'protects' Christians does not in fact protect them anymore, because Government says so.

 

[TemplarKormac]

It's an art form to put those two little grooms on the cake.

It is an art form to make the cake. Putting two grooms on the cake is a form of art the artist doesn't support.

 

[candycorn]

A Christian florist who was sued and found guilty of discrimination after refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding isn’t planning on backing down, recently issuing a defiant letter rejecting a settlement agreement and revealing plans to appeal her case.

After Barronelle Stutzman, 70, declined a $2,001 settlement offer in a letter to the state’s attorney general on Friday, her attorney, Kristen Waggoner, senior counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm, told TheBlaze on Monday that a judge’s decision that Stutzman violated anti-discrimination law will be challenged in the state court system.

As previously reported, Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom decided last week that Barronelle Stutzman violated Washington’s Law Against Discrimination and Consumer Protection Act when she refused service to Robert Ingersoll and his partner, Curt Freed.

The state subsequently offered a settlement in which Waggoner would only need to pay a $2,000 fine and $1 in legal fees and commit to offering flowers for gay and straight weddings, alike, if she continues providing matrimony services, the Daily Mail reported.



But the florist declined the offer, with Waggoner telling TheBlaze that nothing new or protective was afforded to her client.

“Attorney General [Bob Ferguson] has relentlessly pursued her personal and professional ruin because she will not celebrate same-sex marriage. His settlement proposal offered nothing new,” she said. “The attorney general continues to pursue her business and personal assets unless she agrees to stop designing wedding arrangements and providing wedding support services for all weddings.”

Waggoner said that the government continues to send a message that artists like Stutzman will be punished if they do not embrace gay relationships.

“The government’s message is the same: as an artist, you must use your heart, mind, and hands to promote same-sex marriage or you will lose everything,” Waggoner said.

The attorney’s comments come after Stutzman penned a response letter to Ferguson, rejecting his offer and defending her religious beliefs. In it, she wrote that it has been “exhausting” to be at the center of the controversy over the past two years and said that she never imagined that her “God-given talents and abilities” would become illegal if she refused to use them to serve same-sex weddings.

“Since 2012, same-sex couples all over the state have been free to act on their beliefs about marriage, but because I follow the Bible’s teaching that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, I am no longer free to act on my beliefs,” she wrote.

Stutzman specifically took aim at Ferguson’s settlement offer, claiming that it shows that he truly doesn’t understand her intention to defend her religious liberty.

“Your offer reveals that you don’t really understand me or what this conflict is all about. It’s about freedom, not money,” she wrote. “I certainly don’t relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important.”

Stutzman continued, “Washington’s constitution guarantees us ‘freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment.’ I cannot sell that precious freedom. You are asking me to walk in the way of a well-known betrayer, one who sold something of infinite worth for 30 pieces of silver. That is something I will not do.”

Read the letter in its entirety below:

Dear Mr. Ferguson,

Thank you for reaching out and making an offer to settle your case against me.

As you may imagine, it has been mentally and emotionally exhausting to be at the center of this controversy for nearly two years. I never imagined that using my God-given talents and abilities, and doing what I love to do for over three decades, would become illegal. Our state would be a better place if we respected each other’s differences, and our leaders protected the freedom to have those differences. Since 2012, same-sex couples all over the state have been free to act on their beliefs about marriage, but because I follow the Bible’s teaching that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, I am no longer free to act on my beliefs.

Your offer reveals that you don’t really understand me or what this conflict is all about. It’s about freedom, not money. I certainly don’t relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important. Washington’s constitution guarantees us “freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment.” I cannot sell that precious freedom. You are asking me to walk in the way of a well-known betrayer, one who sold something of infinite worth for 30 pieces of silver. That is something I will not do.

I pray that you reconsider your position. I kindly served Rob for nearly a decade and would gladly continue to do so. I truly want the best for my friend. I’ve also employed and served many members of the LGBT community, and I will continue to do so regardless of what happens with this case. You chose to attack my faith and pursue this not simply as a matter of law, but to threaten my very means of working, eating, and having a home. If you are serious about clarifying the law, then I urge you to drop your claims against my home, business, and other assets and pursue the legal claims through the appeal process. Thanks again for writing and I hope you will consider my offer.

Sincerely,

Barronelle Stutzman

Waggoner said that the letter was meant to affirm that Stutzman will not be giving up by surrendering her freedom for money.

“In what world is $2,001 a good deal for surrendering your freedom?” Waggoner said.

Florist Sued for Refusing Service to Gay Couple Pens Defiant Letter Rejecting Gov t Settlement Offer and Her Attorney Reveals What s Next TheBlaze.com

Nothing Christian about this act by this woman.

 

[bodecea]

[

So gender discrimination is okay?

Sometimes it's vital.

If it's vital, it should be shown to be so in a court of law.

 

[candycorn]

It's an art form to put those two little grooms on the cake.

It is an art form to make the cake. Putting two grooms on the cake is a form of art the artist doesn't support.

So, if someone made the cake, delivered it, and didn't put the two little plastic men on top of the cake, the "work of art" would be in tact? Seems like a reasonable solution. Just do everything except put the two dudes on top of the cake.

 

[bodecea]

I'm oddly fascinated with the idea of lesbians constantly hitting on KG.

Fascinated...as in really disgusted, right?

 

[Uncensored2008]

If it's vital, it should be shown to be so in a court of law.

Political correctness trumps sanity.

My only hope is that a judge who ruled fire departments must lower standards to accept women burns to death when a woman fire fighter lacks the strength to pull him from a burning building.

THAT would be justice.

 

[bodecea]

One day a gay couple is going to choose a Christian baker or florist and get told "Because of the loss of artistic and religious freedom to the gay mafia's demands I no longer offer wedding services. Would you like some brownies?"

Ok...as long as that is true.

 

[LittleNipper]

Yo, she needs to find a judge that agrees with her, like your boy Obama does?

"GTP"

"boy"?

If gays want their own flowers, they should buy seeds, plant them and grow them.

If gays want a picture taken, they can get their own camera and a freaking selfie stick.

If gays want cakes or cupcakes, Betty Crocker would most certainly love their business.

If minorities want to be served in restaurants they can start their own.
If women want to vote, they can start their own country.
If Rosa Parks want to ride in front, she can start her own bus company.

People can and do control their behavior. People cannot change how or where or why they were born. And yes, people who feel slighted can and do establish their own communities. And yes, if those communities are blessed by GOD they will flourish and if not they will face turmoil.

 

[bodecea]

If it's vital, it should be shown to be so in a court of law.

Political correctness trumps sanity.

My only hope is that a judge who ruled fire departments must lower standards to accept women burns to death when a woman fire fighter lacks the strength to pull him from a burning building.

THAT would be justice.

Ah...misogyny.....more bedfellows.