Pizza shop survives threats, re-opens today in Indiana

Memories Pizza in Walkerton closed down temporarily, and its owners went into hiding, after homosexual activists targeted owner Kevin O'Conner and his daughter, Crystal.

What crime did they commit? Crystal answered a question – truthfully – from a TV news reporter (see video below), telling her that Memories would serve homosexuals but would never cater a same-sex wedding.

"Because of what we believe," Crystal told The Daily Mail, "we cannot condone a wedding. But anyone is welcome into this shop, and we will serve anyone, but we will not participate any way in a gay wedding. "

It was just a hypothetical question – and who has pizza catered at a wedding reception?

But the firestorm began, and the family shut down and hid from the public amid threats.

A coach at an Indiana high school, now suspended, used Twitter to invite others to go with her to "burn down" the pizza shop.

"The wrath of gay rights supporters rained down on Memories Pizza because O'Connor committed a thought crime," Kirstin Powers wrote in a USA Today commentary. "She discriminated against nobody, but thinks the 'wrong' thing about same-sex marriage and she said it out loud."

The staff of The Blaze began a fundraising campaign at GoFundMe.com, resulting in over $842,000 in donations for the father/daughter team.

"It unnerved me to see things like that," Kevin O'Conner said of the backlash and threats. "But once the support started coming back, those became secondary. They scare you, they make you nervous, but the kind words we've got since then has outweighed so much of that."

Part of the funds will be used to offset losses during the past week but most will be donated to charity, The Daily Mail reported. 

Some of the funds will also go to Barronelle Stuzman, the Washington florist who was fined for not making an arrangement for a same-sex wedding.