The owners of an Indiana pizza shop are in hiding, after telling a local news station that they would not cater a same-sex marriage ceremony if such an opportunity arose.
Though the whereabouts of Crystal and Kevin O’Connor are unknown, more than $500,000 has been raised online in support of the couple, who have temporarily closed Memories Pizza in the northern Indiana city of Walkerton.
In an interview with ABC57 on Tuesday, Crystal O’Connor said she supported Indiana’s controversial religious freedom law. Critics of the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act say it gives businesses a legal way to discriminate, in the wake of same-sex marriage being made legal in Indiana last year.
The law has since been amended to specify that discrimination is not protected.
Speaking before that amendment, Crystal O’Connor insisted both that they would not discriminate against anyone and that they supported the bill.
“If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no,” she said.
Her words sparked a campaign against the business on the online review site Yelp, where people posted negative reviews laden with political statements and, occasionally, graphic images.
“We don’t serve pizza at our weddings,” wrote one user, Gary C. “And certainly not pizzas with hateful toppings of intolerance.”
A high school sports coach was suspended after writing a negative post about the company on Twitter. “Who’s going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w me?” she wrote in a since-deleted tweet.
Amid the negative reactions, a page was set up on GoFundMe to raise money for the O’Connors, in order “to relieve the financial loss endured by the proprietors’ stand for faith”.
At the time of writing on Friday, more than 18,000 donations had been made.
