Laurie Roberts

opinion columnist

Comes now the inevitable story of the wedding planner who is refusing to do business with a same-sex couple.

Crystal Allen and Kenyata White found a one-stop shop for all their wedding needs on the web, at AffordableWeddingMinister.com. 12 News' Brahm Resnik reports that they were all set up for a December wedding in Encanto Park when the owner of the business, Susan Latimer, realized that the couple she was preparing to marry were two women.

So Latimer called off the wedding – or at least her part in making the wedding happen.

"We are very uncomfortable with same-sex marriage as it is directly against our beliefs," she told the couple via email on Monday. "We would not be a very good fit."

Naturally, the couple is disappointed.

Naturally, all eyes are now on the gay community, which recently won the right to legally marry in Arizona. So here's what the gay community should do.

Nothing.

The website is run by a pair of ordained ministers. Al and Susan Latimer have a First Amendment right to say who they want to marry and who they don't want to marry.

This, according to attorney Brendan Mahoney, chairman of the Phoenix Human Relations Commission, a guy who co-wrote the city's LGBT anti-discrimination law.

Undoubtedly, there are plenty of bakers and wedding planners and even ministers in town who stand ready to bake, plan and marry same-sex couples. Plenty of people who will take joy in Crystal and Kenyata's special day, not to mention a tidy profit from their business.

So, go, celebrate and don't play into the hands of those who are itching for a reason to bring back Senate Bill 1062, last year's debacle of a bill that attempted to legalize discrimination in the name of the Lord.

The people who run AffordableWeddingMinistry.com appear to be people who really do have a sincerely held religious belief that gay marriage is wrong. "We believe Jesus loves everyone and the concept he gave is ... Marriage is HOLY and right for one man and one woman," their website says.

Of course, the couple also says they are "non-judgmental." Go figure.

And then go find a business that wants your business. There are plenty of them.

For years, gay couples have correctly asked that they not be forced to live by the moral beliefs of others. That right has now been granted to them, with the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Would they now want to force their moral beliefs upon others?

Can cooler heads and kinder hearts prevail or is it inevitable that Arizona will head down the rocky road of trying to legalize discrimination?