Even with the Supreme Court finally ruling in favor of marriage equality, there’s still a lot to do in order to stop discrimination against LGBT people. We got a pretty loud reminder of this from a hardware store in Washburn, Tennessee; near Knoxville. That store’s owner decided to put up a sign declaring in no uncertain terms that gays and lesbians are not welcome.
Jeff Amyx, the store’s owner, told WBIR-TV in Knoxville that on Monday morning, he decided to protest the Supreme Court’s decision by taping a sign to the door of Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies in Washburn saying “No Gays Allowed.” Amyx, who is also an ordained Baptist minister, says that his reasoning is simple–homosexuality is against his religion.
He added that since gays and lesbians aren’t afraid to stand up for their beliefs, Christians shouldn’t be afraid to stand up for theirs. Amyx is well aware he’s going to take a lot of heat for this–and welcomes it. “I’m going to take more persecution than them,” he said, “because I’m standing for what I believe in.”
At first glance, it appears that Amyx would be well within his rights to keep that hateful sign on his door. Tennessee law does not protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. Still, I have to wonder how he would know whether someone is gay or not. In this part of Tennessee, any woman with short hair is suspected of being lesbian. Things could get mighty interesting if someone gets thrown out on suspicion of being gay when he or she is really straight.
When I first saw this, I thought this was a classic case of something that was both 100?percent?legal and 100?percent?wrong. But while perusing the store’s Website, I noticed that Amyx also rents out U-Haul trucks and equipment. Hmmm–does U-Haul know that it has a relationship with someone engaging in blatant discrimination? Perhaps someone may want to drop U-Haul a line about this.
Judging by the comments on this story, though, Amyx’ move isn’t going over very well. The great majority of the commenters think this sign is blatantly discriminatory. One commenter said that while she is personally opposed to gay marriage, she won’t turn gays away from her business.
Plus, you have to ask the obvious question–what if Amyx put “whites only”? Or “no Hispanics allowed”? And on, and on. I think we know how long either of those would last.
Within a few hours of WBIR’s story going live, several area residents started a Facebook page called “Boycott Amyx Hardware.”
Granted, Tennessee has turned an almost unrecognizable shade of red. But will this sign that all but announces a campaign of blatant discrimination be enough to bring Governor Bill Haslam and the state legislature to their senses? We can only hope–even if U-Haul doesn’t force Amyx’ hand.
