Prosecuted florist: ‘This isn’t real to me’
"I waited on Rob for years," Barronelle Stutzman said,
referring to the gay former customer who sued her for refusing to participate
in his "wedding" to a man, shortly after speaking at the American
Family Association's luncheon at the annual Values Voters Summit. "He
would come in and pick out unusual and different vases, and he'd just say,
'Just do your thing, this is for Kurt's birthday,' or whatever, and I loved it
because I got to get out of the box and make him something special. We had a
great relationship. I really miss him."
Stutzman said she never expected prosecution from the state,
which her attorney later told LifeSiteNews could bankrupt her and cause her to
lose her business. "Rob and I had been friends, as I said, for
years," explains Stutzman. "And when Rob left, I hugged him – before
he left, we talked about his marriage, and why he was getting married. I told
him about three other florists who could do his wedding, and we hugged, and he
left, and we were fine – until the attorney general and the ACLU jumped on
board."
"I'm still a small businessperson," says the
soft-spoken grandmother. "This isn't real to me. I still go to work. The
store's still open; I have a great manager and a great crew that take care of
things while I'm gone, but I still go back and go to work, and do my job."
"I spoke about our freedoms" at the luncheon, says
Stutzman, "and about Rob and Kurt and our relationship. I talked about how
God's promises are faithful, and that Christ gave His life for us, and what are
we going to give for Him? And if everybody stands behind me, not behind me, and
we be silent, then we have nothing left to fight for."
Despite the enormous pressure she's been under, Stutzman
described how she's "seen my crew grow in Christ, and we've had wonderful
people support and pray for us, and it has been really encouraging for
us."
Stutzman's attorney, Kellie Fiedorek, said that "right now,
we're appealing her case to the Washington Supreme Court."
Stutzman "stands to lose everything she owns. It's
unprecedented. We've never seen an attorney general come after one of its own
citizens this way before – simply for declining to participate in an event. And
not only suing her as her business, but personally."
"There's a lot at stake in this debate."
Fiedorek says Washington State law makes it illegal for
businesses to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation – but since
Stutzman had served and employed people with same-sex sexual attractions
before, the case "is about marriage, and the fact that the government
can't coerce one of its citizens to violate their First Amendment freedoms, and
participate, and use their expressive art, to celebrate an event that conflicts
with their sincerely held beliefs."
