On Monday, a few days after last week’s Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, Jeff Amyx put a sign that said “No Gays Allowed” on the door of his hardware store in Tennessee. On Tuesday night, he amended the sign slightly. It now reads, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone who would violate our rights of freedom of speech & freedom of religion.” He told WATE 6 in Knoxville, “People told me I ought to do it a little bit more, make it a little nicer because I’m a very blunt person.” WATE 6 adds, “The signs are raising some questions in the Washburn community about how Amyx would even know someone was gay.”
Amyx, who is also a Baptist minister, has no plans to take the sign down and is not worried about how his sign might affect business. “The reason I put up the sign,” he said, “is to let the homosexual people know that there are Christian people that are willing to take a stand.”
Elsewhere in Tennessee and other states that have just begun to offer same-sex-marriage licenses, several county clerks have resigned or stopped doing marriage ceremonies altogether. Hickman County Clerk Casey Dorton told WKRN, “I made the decision to stop performing all marriage ceremonies because of my religious beliefs. I just couldn’t do it. I want to be honest with people about the reason.” In Kentucky, one voter told the Clarion Ledger that she was “kind of shocked” that a clerk would resign over same-sex marriage. “She’s given marriage licenses to people who have committed adultery and stolen and lied, and when their parents haven’t approved … it’s just crazy the way she’s thinking. That’s her job and she’s not there to judge people.”
