The owners of an Oregon bakery who denied service to a same-sex couple have paid more than $135,000 in state-ordered damages – months after refusing to do so – according to state officials Monday.
Aaron Klein, co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, dropped a check off for $136,927.07, according to the Bureau of Labor and Industries. The payment includes interest. Klein also paid $7,000 earlier this month.
Damages were awarded in July for "emotional suffering" caused by the bakery, which refused to make a wedding cake for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer more than two years ago. The bakers said they refused to make the cake because of their religious beliefs.
The dispute goes back to January 2013 when Bowman-Cryer came into the shop with her mother for a cake-tasting appointment. However, Aaron Klein told the women that the bakery didn’t do cakes for same-sex weddings. The women filed complaints with the state and triggered a national debate over claims of religious beliefs against anti-discrimination laws.
Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian awarded the damages nearly six months ago, saying the owners had violated the women’s civil rights by discriminating on the basis of their sexual orientation. They were also slapped with a gag order that prohibited them from speaking publicly about their refusal to participate in or bake wedding cakes for same-sex marriages.
Aaron and his wife Melissa filed an appeal of the ruling and were defying the order to pay the damages before Monday. Tyler Smith, an attorney representing the Kleins, told The Oregonian that his clients have not abandoned their appeal of Avakian’s order.
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15 comments:
Evil will continue to slowly break our country apart until our Judeo-Christian foundation is not only defended, but proudly practiced and celebrated again!
So, gays are causing people to refuse to make cakes for them now?? That's extreme. If they are happy... who cares? I know plenty of gay people with happier and stronger marriages/relationships than straight people. Get a grip!!!!
The fine was for releasing their address and causing them to be harassed. Not for refusing to bake the cake.
If you violate the law (and they did), there are consequences. I'm not saying I agree with those consequences, but what I have a problem with is the government telling defendants they can't TALK about it.
Pay the fine and tell the world what you think. That is our RIGHT, not to be arbitrarily doled out by men who think THEY get to dispense our rights as they see fit.
Hang them, too.
Keep cheering.
is not servitude against ones will slavery ? i thought those days were over ?
Show us the damages.
No, 8:45. The 'gays' involved here are out to destroy couple because they live by their sincerely-held Christian beliefs.
The quality of relationships is irrelevant.
Our Constitution provides protection for the free exercise of our religious beliefs.. a 'right of conscience.'
The homosexual fascism that DEMANDS services and compliance from people in violation of their conscience is what's extreme.
They could have easily gone elsewhere (as many kind, considerate gay folks have) to get their cake or services.
I would have made them the ugliest cake in the world.
@9:24
I think you've got that a bit out of focus. Let me help you.
The Constitution gives everyone the right to their religious beliefs, but gives no one the right to impose said beliefs upon others.
To make it simple, your religion says don't be gay, then YOU can follow that rule. This is you exercising your religion.
However, denying someone else service because they are gay is not exercising your religion, it is discrimination.
To give another example, a female Muslim business owner could choose to wear a hijab, but could not force someone to wear one into their establishment, nor refuse service for not wearing one.
Hope that clears this up.
I agree 10 am those nut jobs would not like the cake I made for em
I would have duplicated the two slice Tilly scene from The Help.
Unfortunately that is the truth.
10:50 Dec 31, forcing the couple to participate in the gay wedding under the threat of a huge monetary penalty is denying them the "free exercise thereof".
Hope this clears that up for you.
Check out Louder With Crowder, as he visits several Islamic bakeries in this country, asking them to bake a wedding cake for him and his (fictional) gay boyfriend.
Every one of them refuses.
Media doesn't go apeshit. DOJ isn't interested. Charges aren't filed. Business isn't shut down.
Hypocrisy, the calling card of religion. And islam's defining trait.
Well and clearly put.
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