A Memphis florist has received massive backlash after saying she won’t do business with Donald Trump supporters after his 2024 election win.
Kristin Wolter, 49, made the announcement on the now-private Instagram account for her business, Everbloom Designs.
‘I won’t do business with people who support the president-elect,’ she said in the video, which circulated widely social media beginning last week.
‘It is because I need to create a safe place for me, my staff, and my family.’
Wolter said she was shocked that her ‘community chose financial concerns and economy over human rights and decency,’ Newsmax host Todd Starnes wrote in a post on X.
Wolter issued a second statement after receiving blowback to her initial comments, according to KWAM News Radio 900. The station posted an announcement on Saturday saying that the shop would be closed the ‘rest of the week due to threats to me and my business.’
‘I knew standing up for what I believe in would have consequences,’ the note read.
‘I am so grateful to those of you that have supported me in this. They are showing their true colors and lack of decency and humanity.’
A listing for the business on Google indicated the florist was temporarily closed as of Tuesday.
DailyMail.com made several attempts to contact Wolter.
A phone call to the shop on Tuesday went to voicemail. The contact page on its website also appears to have been disabled, as does the company’s Facebook page.
Memphis was one of the few places in Tennessee that went blue during the 2024 race, where Trump won 64 percent of the state’s votes.
Many Trump supporters were quick to call for a boycott against Wolter’s business and said she was ‘sabotaging’ herself.
‘Talk about sabotaging your own business,’ one X user wrote.
‘She’ll file for bankruptcy by Inauguration Day,’ another said.
‘We certainly appreciate the heads up!’ Starnes added. ‘I’m sure there are other places for people to buy pansies – places that don’t discriminate based on political affiliation.’
‘If you can’t handle a difference of opinion, you probably shouldn’t be in business. Memphis deserves better than this,’ another commenter wrote.
Wolter’s sentiments echo those of a Colorado baker, who refused to bake a cake for a gender transition in 2017.
He also refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.
Wolter’s sentiments echo those of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a gender transition in 2017.
The Denver baker, Jack Phillips, also famously won a partial victory at the US Supreme Court in 2018 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
Jack Phillips was sued by a transgender attorney, Autumn Scardina, for refusing to fulfill her order for a blue birthday cake with pink filling to signify her gender transition.
Phillips, a Christian, testified in court in 2021 that he does not believe that someone can change genders and that he would not celebrate ‘somebody who thinks that they can.’
In a June 2021 ruling, Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones said Scardina was denied a cake in violation of the law and fined him $500 – the maximum penalty under Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act.
While Phillips said he could not make the cake because of its message, Jones said the case was about a refusal to sell a product, not compelled speech.
‘The anti-discrimination laws are intended to ensure that members of our society who have historically been treated unfairly are no longer treated as ”others,”’ Jones wrote at the time.
An attorney representing Phillips from the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) pushed the court to overturn the ruling on the grounds that forcing him to bake a cake featuring a message contradicting his beliefs was tantamount to violating his right to free speech.
The case was dismissed last month.
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