Barronelle Stutzman (Photo : Facebook)
A florist from Washington was fined with US$1000 after she refused to sell wedding flowers to a same-sex couple in 2013and due to this, she has gained support online as a Gofundme.com was put up for her so she can pay the fine.
According to The Seattle Times, the woman was identified as 70-year-old Barronelle Stutzman and is the owner of a flower shop called Arlene's Flowers. The crowdfunding page that was set up for Stutzman aims to help her protect her and her livelihood and it has already received more than US$80,000 over the weekend.
The report stated that the page for Stutzman was put up on February and was fined during the last week of March but almost half of the funds only came pouring this weekend. The funds came amid the controversial issue regarding a pizza shop in Indiana called Memories Pizza that was forced to close after it did not want to cater to a same-sex wedding. A page was also set up for the said pizza shop and it got over US$842,000 from its supporters.
According to a statement, Stutzman was friends with one of the men who wanted the wedding flowers and the only reason for her refusal was that it was against her beliefs because her religion is Southern Baptist. However, she did say that she would provide flowers for the couple for other occasions but not for the wedding.
According to Time, with the fine, a Benton County Superior Court judge also ruled that all of the goods and services offered by Stutzman should be available to all kinds of couples. This is in accordance with the Washington law that states Washingtonians should be treated equally regardless of creed, sexual orientation or race. Stutzman still declined to comply with the law and the money that was outsourced from the crowd funding campaign is to be used for legal bills if the lawsuit continues.
