As Gov. Mike Pence was signing SB 101, which legalized discrimination against LGBT people, Indiana businessman Scott Wise was drafting an open letter about his feelings on the subject. The devout Christian wanted the public to know that he does not agree with the sentiments behind the new law and will never discriminate against anyone because of their sexual orientation. He wrote:

I’m a business owner. I’m a role model for 4 children, many of my employees and I hope for even some in the Indiana community. I love God and Jesus and am a born again, 3 years removed, baptized Christian.

I employ over 1300 people in the state of Indiana. Several of my employees are openly gay, proud and happy which include hourly, employees, management and corporate executives. Most importantly, I consider all of them my colleagues and even more so, my friends.

I have no idea how many other people I employ are gay and I don’t really care. On the flipside, I also have no idea how many are straight. Why should I? I have no idea how many of my guests are gay, or Jewish, or Indian, or any other descriptive demographic status that is utterly unimportant in running a business, nor any of my personal business. I am trying to teach my team to simply give excellent customer service to a guest that pays our wages and allows us to have a job. The ONLY thing I would ever ask from our guest is that they treat our restaurants and our staff with the same respect, politeness, courtesy, etiquette and manners that we should all hold each other accountable to as human beings, not just restaurant employees and guests.

We want to show support for this business owner who has so proactively been out front on this issue for us.

*Source: Outsports Cyd Zeigler

This is Clinton Brentwood Lee, a photographer from St. Petersburg, Florida. He has traveled the world for more than 15 years shooting weddings and other events for his company Brentwood Photography.

On Friday, like many people on Facebook, Lee changed his profile picture and cover photo for his business page to show support for marriage equality in the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling.

“All we see is love,” he wrote.

Lee told BuzzFeed News it was important for him to share on his business page “what we stand proudly for.”

“I think it’s important to show support for gay marriage because we are all human beings just wanting the same thing,” he said. “Someone to love us, and the same protection and rights under the law. Everyone deserves their ‘happily ever after.’”

While many people showed support for the photos, one client didn’t. The client wrote Lee and told him they would no longer be using him for their upcoming wedding because he supports same-sex marriage.

The client wrote:

Greetings Brentwood. We would just like to inform you we will NOT be using your services for out [sic] wedding. My fiancé and I support traditional marriage between a man and a woman and don’t want our money going to places that supports [sic] otherwise. Secondly I would like to inquire about how we can get our retainer back from you. Thanks.

Lee posted his killer response to the couple as well:

Wow, I’m not really sure what to say here. I would say this disappoints me, but I actually find this to be a good thing because our company now would now not like to work with you as well.

It’s not that because you have a different view from us, but it’s because, since you don’t like an support gay marriage, no one else should be able to have it. That’s like me not liking broccoli, and demanding that everyone else in the world should not have broccoli either! If you’re not in favor of gay marriage that’s fine, don’t marry a woman.

Personally, I was taught not to judge others and to love everyone else. So I will try not to judge you here and say anything more as to my opinion of you.

At Brentwood Photography we see love in all forms. Now as far as your retainer goes, I hope you’ll read the first article in the contract you signed stating that this retainer is nonrefundable.

But don’t you worry, I’m not going to keep it!

Because of this conversation, I have decided to donate your $1500 to GLAD [sic] [the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation], a group created to help and support gay rights.

So let me be the first to say [redacted], thank you very much for your donation and support for this great cause!

I couldn’t have done it without your money.

Sincerely and with Love,

Brentwood Photography

The post has since been liked more than 26,000 times, with some people praising Lee for taking a stand for his beliefs.

But some people have sent him hate mail. Lee said he is sure he will lose clients for his post, but he doesn’t care.

Lee said the messages have been mostly positive, and he knows he did the right thing.

“I think it’s truly beautiful the amount of positive messages and words of encouragement I have received; it has been about 90% positive and 10% gut-wrenching, sad personal attacks,” he said. “The hate that comes out of these people’s mouths make me want to cry, but the 90% give me the strength to stay strong and not doubt what I did.”

He added that he wants to make it clear the client signed a contract stating that the deposit was nonrefundable.

“I had a few people call me a crook, and say that I should give the money back, but they don’t seem to understand that the retainer is paid for and there to protect us,” he said.

The original client also sent him a message back, saying posting their exchange on Facebook was “annoying and distasteful.” Lee wrote he is “Sorry/not sorry.”

He also shared with BuzzFeed News the client’s original response to his message.

The amount of people the post has reached has been overwhelming, he said.

“I wish I could see my client’s face as she reads how her and intolerance has kind of backfired,” he said. “I’ve had several professional photographers write me saying they are now inspired to take a stand as well.”

*Source: BuzzFeed News Stephanie McNeal

The girlfriend of Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Doolittle is being praised for her response to a forthcoming LGBT Pride Night that will be hosted by her boyfriend’s team.

Eireann Dolan, who was raised by two moms, said she was “disheartened” to see responses to the June 17 event from “people who, for whatever reason, do not support this night of inclusion and community” who were vowing to sell their tickets on social media, the San Jose Mercury News first reported.

“Everybody is entitled to their own beliefs and as long as nobody is getting hurt, I’m happy. I also can’t stop you from selling your tickets,” she wrote on her blog. “I won’t tell you that you are wrong or that you are not allowed to think or act that way.”

She continued, “So, A’s fans; if attending a baseball game on LGBT Pride Night makes you at all uncomfortable, it is probably a good idea to sell your tickets. And I have the perfect buyer. ME!”

Dolan has offered to buy tickets from fans who felt uncomfortable attending the event and donate them to the Bay Area Youth Center’s Our Space community for LGBTQI youth. She also launched an online fundraising campaign in order to buy more seats for the group, and Doolittle followed up by agreeing to match his girlfriend’s donations up to $3,000.

Dolan’s campaign, dubbed “Filling The Stands On Pride Night,” had raised over $16,000 at the time this story was first published.

Meanwhile, the Oakland A’s released a statement to the Mercury News in response to Dolan and Doolittle’s beneficence, noting, “We are hopeful that the support that has been expressed for the event in the past few days will make it an even more successful first-year event and demonstrate that the A’s organization welcomes and supports the inclusion of all fans.”

*Source: Huffington Post Curtis M. Wong

The owner of a Colorado-based bakery is facing a religious discrimination complaint after she refused to bake a cake decorated with anti-gay images and phrases.

Marjorie Silva, who owns Denver’s Azucar Bakery, tells USA Today she was approached in March 2014 by a customer named Bill Jack, who requested several Bible-shaped cakes with phrases like “God hates gays” written in icing. In addition, Jack wanted an image of two men holding hands with an “X” on top of at least one of the cakes, according to the report.

“We never refuse service,” Silva told My Fox Houston. “We did feel that it was not right for us to write hateful words or pictures against human beings.”

Although Silva says she offered to bake the cake and sell extra frosting to Jack so that he could write whatever he wanted, that apparently wasn’t enough. The customer responded by filing a complaint with the Civil Rights division of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), saying he was being discriminated against because of his religious beliefs.

In a statement released to Denver’s KUSA-TV, NBC9, Jack said, “I believe I was discriminated against by the bakery based on my creed. As a result, I filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights division.”

Jack, who is identified by the news station as a founder of the “non-denominational” Christian organization Worldview Academy, then added, “Out of respect for the process, I will wait for the director to release his findings before making further comments.”

Silva responded to her supporters with an image on her bakery’s official Facebook page:

“It’s unfair that he’s accusing me of discriminating when I think he was the one that is discriminating,” she also told KUSA-TV, NBC9.

With more U.S. states implementing same-sex marriage legislation, bakeries have become an unlikely battleground for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in recent months. In 2014, the owner of Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshopvowed to stop preparing wedding cakes entirely after a local court ruled he’d discriminated against a pair of gay grooms-to-be when he refused to sell them a cake.

“I do what I do because I love doing what I do and I believe it’s what God’s designed for me to do,” Jack Phillips told Fox News’ Elisabeth Hasselbeck via Raw Story in 2013. “I don’t feel that I should participate in their wedding, and when I do a cake, I feel like I’m participating in the ceremony or the event or the celebration that the cake is for.”

In September 2014, baker Melissa Klein broke down in tears at the Values Voter Summit over the closing of the Oregon bakery she and her husband, Aaron, owned and operated. The couple, who owned Sweet Cakes by Melissa, had faced national backlash over their refusal to bake a lesbian couple’s wedding cake, and is now reportedly facing a $150,000 fine from the state of Oregon over the 2013 incident.

*Source: Huffington Post Curtis M. Wong