A sign on a window at Memories Pizza says the Walkerton business has closed. Staff photo by Robert Franklin
WALKERTON — Memories Pizza, the shop that became embroiled in the national debate over religious and civil rights and touched off a national media firestorm in 2015, has closed.
A sign in the front window of the pizza shop says it was shuttered last month.
Owners Kevin and Crystal O’Connor were the focus of intense criticism and media attention in April 2015 after they told an ABC 57 reporter that they wouldn’t cater a gay wedding because of their religious beliefs, although they added that they would not deny service to any customer in the restaurant.
Indiana at the time was already in the national spotlight for its controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The pizza shop owners’ comments soon went viral, and media outlets such as the Washington Post, CNN and Fox News descended on Walkerton, using Memories Pizza as a focal point for the controversy over Indiana’s law. Supporters of the law said it would protect the religious rights of business owners while critics said it would be used to discriminate against gay people and others.
In the wake of the Memories Pizza controversy, a Concord High School coach was fired for posting online a comment about burning down the shop.
Copyright © 2024, South Bend Tribune