A florist in eastern Washington state who was fined $1,000 for refusing to sell wedding flowers to a same-sex couple – and who also faces a consumer-protection lawsuit – has netted more than $85,000 from supporters in a crowdfunding campaign.
The Seattle Times reported that nearly half of the money on the GoFundMe.com page, which was set up in February for 70-year-old Barronelle Stutzman, had come in the last several days.
Supporters compare Stutzman’s benefit page to an Indiana pizza shop, for which GoFundMe contributors raised more than $800,000. The shop in Walkerton, Indiana, Memories Pizza, closed and its owners said they were in hiding after they said on local television that they would not cater a gay wedding.
Stutzman, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers and Gifts in Richland, Washington, received the fine in Benton County superior court in March, after refusing to serve a same-sex couple in 2013.
Stutzman says same-sex weddings go against her Southern Baptist beliefs.
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