Etsy Shop Owner Refuses to Do Business with Lesbian Brides

Artist and Etsy shop owner Jess Fong’s collection of designs includes adorable illustrations of muppets and Disney characters, but there’s nothing too adorable about the way she’s running her company. Queerty reports that Fong (aka Paledesigns on Etsy) refused to do business with one lesbian couple who reached out to her to create a guest-book cover for their upcoming wedding.

Jami Howard says her inquiries about the project began with a friendly exchange of ideas, but when she “dropped the ‘gay’ bomb, things completely changed.” This is the note from Fong she found in her inbox:

Hi Jami,

Sorry for the late reply!

After talking with my pastor and praying about the situation, I decided that I shouldn’t design your guestbook for you.

Please know that I did take this into much thought though. Because I am a Christian and I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, I feel that designing a customized guestbook for you two will be against my belief and will mean that who I am and my business supports gay marriages.

I hope that you understanding [sic]. Sorry for staying in contact with you for so long and not giving you a concrete response until now.

Howard’s statement to Queerty included skepticism about Etsy’s policies: “I just wonder if there is anything that Etsy.com itself has to say about this kind of discrimination. If sexual orientation can be discriminated against on Etsy, what other kinds of discrimination are they also okay with shop owners getting away with?”

I’m guessing they don’t take too kindly to it. The Paledesigns page on the site is currently stripped of all merchandise …

Check out Queerty’s story here.

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