A florist in Washington state who was in an eight-year legal battle that reached the US Supreme Court will retire after settling with the same-sex couple whose wedding job she refused. Barronelle Stutzman of Richland, Washington, announced the settlement Thursday, saying she has paid $5,000 to Robert Ingersoll, the Tri-City Herald reported. She also wished Ingersoll, who had been her customer at Arlene's Flowers for almost a decade, "the very best." Ingersoll and his husband, Curt Freed, plan to donate the settlement payment to a local PFLAG chapter and personally match the $5,000.
The agreement allows Stutzman to "preserve her conscience" by not forcing her to act against her Southern Baptist religious beliefs, according to a news release from her attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom. They reached the settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union. It also prevents Stutzman from having "to pay potentially ruinous attorneys’ fees," the release said. "I am willing to turn the legal struggle for freedom over to others. At age 77, it’s time to retire and give my business to someone else," Stutzman said.
The settlement leaves in place two unanimous decisions by the Washington state Supreme Court that the Constitution does not grant a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, the ACLU of Washington said. "We took on this case because we were worried about the harm being turned away would cause LGBTQ people," Freed and Ingersoll said Thursday in a statement. "We are glad the Washington Supreme Court rulings will stay in place to ensure that same-sex couples are protected from discrimination and should be served by businesses like anyone else."
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