Oregon Issues Gag Order for Bakers Who Refused to Make Gay Wedding Cake

[Valin]

The Weekly Standard:

MARK HEMINGWAY

Jul 3, 2015

 

In April, an administrative judge with the Oregon Department of Labor ordered Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of the now shuttered bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa, to pay a fine of $135,000 for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian couple's wedding. While there's a case the couple violated the state's public accommodation laws, there's little doubt that the fine was excessive and the reasoning for it specious. (For more on the plight of Kleins, see THE WEEKLY STANDARD editorial, "Bake Me a Cake -- or Else.")

 

Despite losing their business and facing a hefty fine they can't afford, the Kleins continue to stand by their Christian convictions and fight the ruling. However, the state just finalized the ruling against the Kleins and added a new wrinkle. According to the state, the Kleins are now forbidden from talking about the ruling against them. Here's the relevant portion of the decision:

 

(Snip)

 

 

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Were I the Kleins I'd tell Bradley Avakian to go F himself. Only in somewhat harsher words than that.

[nickydog]

I feel so sorry for these people.

[Draggingtree]

Elections and Cakes Have Consequences

 

C. U. Douglas

December 17, 2016

15 COMMENTS

 

Brad Avakian, the Democrat who lost his race to be Oregon’s Secretary of State.

 

The dust is settling on election season, mostly. The Democrats have been doing their best to kick it up as much as they can in the presidential election, but that’s proving to have dubious results at best. Of course in the states, the Democrats have lost a lot of ground. In many ways, they are being pushed back to their coastal strongholds to lick their collectivist wounds. But even those are not safe. Though Oregon is mostly a one-party state, and almost all major offices are held by Democrats, Republican Dennis Richardson managed to take the Secretary of State’s office in a race against Brad Avakian.

 

That last name might be familiar to you if you’ve followed social politics at all. Brad Avakian is the administrator who was knee-deep in the Cake Wars here in Oregon. He was the one who ruled against Aaron and Melissa Klein who owned Sweet Cakes by Melissa – the same Kleins who refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple.

https://ricochet.com/397139/elections-and-cakes-have-consequences/

[Draggingtree]

I feel so sorry for these people.

see my post of Elections and Cakes Have Consequences

[Draggingtree]

Wedding cakes v. religious beliefs?: In Plain English

By Amy Howe on Sep 11, 2017 at 11:59 am

Colorado’s anti-discrimination law bars places of public accommodation – that is, businesses that sell to the public – from discriminating based on (among other things) sexual orientation. In 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins went to Masterpiece Cakeshop, a Denver-area bakery, to order a cake to celebrate their upcoming wedding. But the couple left empty-handed … and upset. Masterpiece’s owner, Jack Phillips, is a Christian who closes his business on Sundays and refuses to design custom cakes that conflict with his religious beliefs – for example, cakes that contain alcohol, have Halloween themes or celebrate a divorce. And because Phillips also believes that marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples, he told Craig and Mullins that he would not design a custom cake for their same-sex wedding celebration.

Craig and Mullins went to the Colorado Civil Rights Division, where they accused Phillips of discriminating against them based on their sexual orientation. The agency initiated proceedings against Phillips, who responded that he had turned down the couple not because of their sexual orientation as such, but because “he could not in good conscience create a wedding cake that celebrates their marriage.” The agency, however, dismissed that explanation as “a distinction without a difference,” and it ruled both that Phillips’ refusal to provide the custom cake violated Colorado anti-discrimination laws and that Phillips had “no free speech right” to turn down Craig and Mullins’ request. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission upheld that ruling and told Phillips – among other things – that if he decided to create cakes for opposite-sex weddings, he would also have to create them for same-sex weddings. A Colorado court affirmed, and Phillips asked the Supreme Court to take his case, which it agreed to do in June.

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