--- title: arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill description: Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tucson reserved the right to "refuse service to Arizona legislators" canonical: https://time.com/9317/arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-23T16:12:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:16.418Z og:title: arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill og:description: Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tucson reserved the right to "refuse service to Arizona legislators" og:url: https://time.com/9317/arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill twitter:description: Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tucson reserved the right to "refuse service to Arizona legislators" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Arizona Pizzeria Protests Anti-Gay Bill By Refusing To Serve Lawmakers by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Feb 23, 2014 4:12 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Feb 23, 2014 4:12 PM UTC An Arizona eatery has taken a stand against a controversial new bill — one that [allows business to deny service](http://nation.time.com/2014/02/21/gay-marriage-arizona-businesses-discrimination-bill-religious-liberty/) to gays in the name of religious freedom — by in turn exercising its right to deny service to lawmakers in the name of equality. Rocco’s Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tucson posted a sign in its window that reads, “We reserve the right to refuse service to Arizona legislators.” The restaurant then posted a photo of the sign on its Facebook page, where it’s racked up more than 20,000 likes. “I was appalled by the Senate passing the law,” the restaurant’s owner, Rocco DiGrazia, [told](http://azstarnet.com/news/local/rocco-s-takes-a-stand-against-arizona-legislators/article%5F81e48280-3224-50be-aa05-6d0607be5c85.html) the Arizona _Daily Star._ “The sentiment is that any expansion of discrimination is gonna hurt everybody and open the doors for more.” DiGrazia said several of his regular customers are gay, along with some of his waitstaff. “Why discriminate against anybody?” he said. “I’m just trying to make some food.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/9317/arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/9317/arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill/"},"headline":"Arizona Pizzeria Protests Anti-Gay Bill By Refusing To Serve Lawmakers","datePublished":"2014-02-23T16:12:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:16.418Z","description":"Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tucson reserved the right to \"refuse service to Arizona legislators\"","url":"https://time.com/9317/arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Pizza","States","LGBT","protests","Arizona","Laws","Legislation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/9317/arizona-pizzeria-protests-anti-gay-bill/","name":"Arizona Pizzeria Protests Anti-Gay Bill By Refusing To Serve Lawmakers"}}]}] ```