They really should have just baked the dang cake.
That has to be what (former) Oregon bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein are thinking nowadays, nearly five years after they made national headlines when they wouldn’t make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The Kleins first justified their refusal by citing their right to religious freedom, and later, their freedom of expression as artists. Today, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the $135,000 fine levied against them for unlawful discrimination.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the wedding cake ordering process started out smoothly enough, but quickly went to a dark place.
The case began when Rachel Bowman-Cryer went to the suburban Portland bakery with her mother in January 2013. They met with Aaron Klein, who asked for the date of the ceremony and the names of the bride and groom.
When told there was no groom, Klein said he was sorry but the bakery did not make cakes for same-sex weddings. According to documents from the case, Rachel and her mother left the shop, but returned a short time later. As Rachel remained in the car, in tears, her mother went in to speak with Klein.
The mother told Klein she had once thought like him, but her "truth had changed" when she had two gay children. Klein responded by quoting Leviticus: "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."
Since Bowman-Cryer and her now-wife, Laurel, filed a complaint with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries, both couples have seen their lives completely upended by the ensuing controversy and attention. The bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, closed down its brick and mortar store just months after Aaron’s biblical choice, moving operations online.
Three years and a move to Utah later, the Kleins shut down their online store in late 2016. It appears that being lauded as persecuted Christian heroes might help you crowdfund half a million, but it doesn’t actually sell that many cupcakes. Or perhaps it’s that people don’t want to order custom cakes on the internet.
According to Fox News, of course, shutting down bigoted bakers is all part of the big gay agenda.
The Kleins were literally run out of business by an anti-Christian mob.
It's hard to believe that something like this could happen in the land of the free, the home of the brave.
But we live in a nation that pledges its allegiance to the Rainbow flag – a nation where gay rights now trump everyone else’s rights.
Meanwhile, the Bowman-Cryers, who got married anyway, have faced their own share of hardships.
Though the Kleins paid the $135,000, it remains locked in escrow pending appeals. The Bowman-Cryers have not received it and instead scrape by on money Rachel Bowman-Cryer earns cleaning homes. For years, they struggled to find a landlord willing to rent to them or employers willing to hire them because the controversy brought too much attention.
Laurel Bowman-Cryer said those were sacrifices she was willing to make.
"If we prevent this from happening to another couple, it feels worth it," Laurel Bowman-Cryer said. "I don't want a future where we have signs in the window saying, 'you're gay, you're not allowed.'"
Meanwhile, attorneys for the Kleins indicated that they have not yet decided if they’re going to continue to drag this out further by continuing to appeal.