Hardware Store Owner Posts ‘No Gays Allowed’ Sign, Then Replaces It With This One After Receiving Threats

Theblaze.com reports: Following the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide, Jeff Amyx got defiant. “They gladly stand for what they believe in; why can’t I?” the eastern Tennessee hardware store owner asked WBIR-TV. ”They believe their way is right; I believe it’s wrong. But yet I’m going to take more persecution than them because I’m standing for what I believe in.”  By “they,” Amyx was referring to the gay community. And as for the persecution he predicted he’d receive, it all revolved around a sign posted on the front of Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies in Washburn: “No Gays Allowed.” “The reason I put up the sign is to let the homosexual people know that there are Christian people that are willing to take a stand,” the Baptist minister told WATE-TV. Reaction to the sign was mixed. “It’s his business. He can do whatever he wants,” Marvin Williams told WATE. “If he wants gays to stay out then that’s his preference.” “A lot of people have called me and congratulated me,” Amyx told WATE, adding that others have been “calling and threatening me. Telling me I would regret this. No, I’ll never regret this.” But on Tuesday, not long after word of the “No Gays Allowed” sign started spreading, Amyx replaced it with a sign that reads, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone who would violate our rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.”... But Amyx told WATE he has no plans to take down the new sign: “Until they tell me it is illegal to have my freedom of speech and … my freedom of religion, the sign will stay.”