Let’s say a neo-Nazi walks into a Jewish bakery and asks them to make a cake that says, “April 20: Happy Birthday, Adolf!” Should the bakery owner be allowed to refuse? If so, why?
Never mind. KGW, Portland:
A Gresham bakery discriminated against a same-sex couple who wanted to purchase a wedding cake, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries announced Monday.
The owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery will have to pay the couple up to $150,000…
In Jan. 2013, Laurel Bowman said Sweet Cakes refused to sell her and her fiancée a cake for their upcoming wedding. Bowman said Aaron Klein, the co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, said the couple’s union was an “abomination unto the lord.”
Bowman filed an anti-discrimination complaint with BOLI later that year, alleging that the bakery violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, which protects the rights of Oregonians who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
The bakery is now closed, but that’s not enough. This lesbian married couple must have their vengeance, in the name of tolerance. They need to ruin these people financially because they had to go somewhere else to get their wedding cake. Their wedding cake.
It’s not enough anymore to be tolerated by society and allowed to be who you are. It’s not enough to be able to marry somebody of the same sex. Now everyone else must approve of it. Or else.
Just add this to the long, long list of reasons not to live in Oregon.
By the way, Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer: Is it really a good idea to piss off the people who make your food? And how did you decide which of your last names went before the hyphen? Coin toss? How much will it cost me to ask?
Congratulations, bigots. You won.
(Hat tip: Scott Shackford)