Tenants who are renting a storefront in Pennsylvania are reportedly being harassed by LGBT activists because it used to be the location of a bridal shop that refused to cater to a gay wedding.
W.W. Bridal Boutique, which used to be located in Bloomsburg, shut down in March, four years after it drew controversy for turning away a lesbian couple who were looking for a wedding dress.
The family who owned the bridal store had decided to rent out the store to a secondhand clothing store in April, but the owner of the new business moved out a month later.
"We did receive multiple complaints about where we chose to move our business to," the anonymous business owner told The Christian Post. "Our sales did drop. We received text messages, calls and someone drove by my home," she continued.
Lisa Boucher, co-owner of the former bridal store, says several people had come in to the new shop, asking the owner about her stance on marriage.
"She didn't sell marriage attire. She sold secondhand clothing. There was no real need to even ask her that. We didn't ask her that. That wasn't something we had asked her in order to rent from us. It is up to her what her beliefs are," Boucher explained.
The woman told Boucher that an unknown man, who apparently referred to himself as the "business killer of Bloomsberg," asked her why she was renting from the owners of the bridal shop.
Other people had also expressed their intention to boycott the new store, Boucher said.
Boucher and her family reportedly received hundreds of emails and phone calls after their refusal to serve the lesbian couple. The family drew controversy again in 2017 after the store again refused to provide its services for a same-sex wedding.
Boucher expressed concern that anybody who rents the store from them will be targeted for harassment because of the family's beliefs.
"This should not affect the renters that rent from us just because we believe in one thing. They have the right to their own beliefs. At this point, we are not really sure what to do," she said, according to The Christian Post.
She said other tenants in the same building have not been harassed or threatened and that she believes the new tenant was hounded simply because she rented the store "knowing how we felt about same-sex marriage."
