Bakery owners face bankruptcy after a discrimination finding

Carolyn Moynihan
9 October 2014
Reproduced with Permission
Conjugality

We often hear that same-sex marriage "won't hurt you" or your beliefs, but the signs are that it does, and willConscientious beliefs are increasingly under assault as laws change in more states, but even without altering marriage law in a particular state citizens can be under pressure from the new ideological environment.

Oregon bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein had no problem doing business with Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman until the day in February 2013 that the lesbian couple asked Sweet Cakes by Melissa to make them a wedding cake.

That was a request the Christian owners decided they could not meetSo, instead of going to another business that would oblige them, Cryer and Bowman laid a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, which decided earlier this year that the Kleins were in breach of the state's Equality Act of 2007, designed to protect LGBT persons from discrimination.

They face a fine in excess of $150,000, which they say would bankrupt them and their five children, and they are appealing the decision, reports The Daily Signal .

Ironically, at the time they were found guilty of discrimination the state itself still had an amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, adopted by a large majority of voters in 2007It wasn't until months later, May 19, 2014, that a federal judge would declare Oregon's amendment unconstitutional, paving the way for same-sex marriages.

The state was in breach of its own anti discrimination law, Aaron Klein points outIn any case a year earlier he thought he was "well within" his legal rights to decline the serviceThe existence of the marriage amendment in 2013 suggests they have good grounds to appeal, but publicity has made them targets of abuse and damaged their business, so they recently closed their shop and are running their business from an in home bakery.

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