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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

GoFundMe Blocks Fundraiser For Christian Bakery

In the wake of what many are viewing as a crushingly punitive and unfair judgment, former bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein were ordered by administrative judge Alan McCullough to pay $135,000 in fines to a lesbian couple. The Kleins declined to bake a wedding cake for the couple due to their religious beliefs.

Almost immediately, supporters set up a GoFundMe page on behalf of the family. Within seven hours, at approximately 6:30 pm Pacific time, it had received nearly $80,000 in funding.

An hour later, it had topped $100,000.

Then abruptly, at approximately 9:10 pm Pacific time, when the fund had a bit over $109,000 dollars, the account was closed.

In a statement regarding their decision to close the account, GoFundMe wrote: “After careful review by our team, we have found the ‘Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa’ campaign to be in violation of our Terms and Conditions. The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal.While a different campaign was recently permitted for a pizzeria in Indiana, no laws were violated and the campaign remained live. However, the subjects of the ‘Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa’ campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled.”

However, a fast search through GoFundMe confirms the fundraising site has many requests for financial assistance from those facing legal actions, including criminal convictions.

The Stream reports, “A competitor of Sweet Cakes by Melissa … contacted GoFundMe to alert the crowd-funding company that the Kleins had violated the terms of service.

She complained: ‘This business has been found GUILTY OF DISCRIMINATION and is being allowed to fundraise to pay their penalty. The GoFundMe terms of service address hate speech, bigotry, criminal activity and sexism among other things in their campaign … The amount of money they have raised in a matter of a few hours by thousands of anonymous cowards is disgusting.‘”

More here

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are NOT guilty of discrimination at all. The judge should be made to pay.

Anonymous said...

If this is the case i will NEVER donate to go fund me again.

Anonymous said...

and this is wrong how? What a ridiculous comment that they are not guilty of discrimination when they have been found so. The stance by GoFundMe is completely legitimate. Do you want every person who has been found guilty of something to be able to open a GoFundME account to help pay for the damages? Ridiculous. Think.

Anonymous said...

so what happens to the money raised??

Anonymous said...

10:51 The people that sued and won because of a liberal pervert judge supporting liberal pervert queers should be arrested for sex crimes and perverse practice.

No one in private business should be forced by the Government to service people they don't wish to service.
In the case of racism and sexual perversion like homosexuality, discrimination should not only be legal, it should be the norm.

Anonymous said...

Can they pay in $3 bills?

Anonymous said...

You can tell someone that you not going to serve them due to there beliefs if your open to the public! That's common sense people come on! That's what they get !!

Anonymous said...

11:07 must be a member of al qaeda or isis. Kill everyone that is different from you. hilarious. have fun in church. too funny

lmclain said...

Those "thousands of anonymous cowards"???

Do they mean everyone who doesn't toe the line of the way THEY think?