DENVER, Colo. (KDVR/CNN) — A Lakewood gay couple is moving ahead with a discrimination complaint against a cake shop that refused to prepare their wedding cake.
The Colorado attorney general’s office filed a formal complaint last week against Masterpiece Cakeshop on behalf of Charlie Craig and David Mullins.
The complaint stems from an incident July 19, 2012, in which Masterpiece owner Jack Phillips declined to create a rainbow layer cake for the couple’s October wedding in Massachusetts, saying his business does not bake cakes for gay weddings.
The move drew national attention and sparked a boycott, though Phillips claimed his business actually increased after the controversy.
“I’m a follower of Jesus Christ, so you could say this is a religious belief,” Phillips told FOX31 Denver. “I believe the Bible teaches that (homosexuality) is not an OK thing.”
At the time, Phillips noted that he would gladly sell other goods to gay people — just not a wedding cake.
After being refused service by the Lakewood bakery, Mullins said he and Craig went to the “gayest cake shop we could think of.” That was LeBakery Sensual in Denver. He also said the outpouring of support that he and Craig have received from “around the world” has been “so reassuring.”
Colorado law says it’s illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation in employment and housing. But when it comes to things like selling cakes, the law is less than clear.
In The News #LGBT- Gay couple denied wedding cake http://t.co/kHvFN80flk http://t.co/5lj4iavwSD
NO ONE should be FORCED to do business with anyone they dont want to
There are plenty of bakeries in Colorado that will oblige this couple, but they purposely targeted the one they KNEW had Christian values, which would preclude them from baking a wedding cake for this gay couple, which represents Holy matrimony. A poor woman who has a bakery here in Oregon was targeted by the gay community for the same reason. To this day her life is being threatened, and that of her children as well. She sells to gays , but she will not make a wedding cake, due biblical scripture. The couple that targeted her knew there are plenty of other bakery’s that would bake a gay wedding cake for them, but they purposely chose the one they knew would not. many B&B Christian owners are being targeted as well, despite the fact there are plenty of hotels and B&Bs which will accommodate gays!! You cannot trump one person’s civil rights (religious rights), which are a persons first amendment rights, to accommodate those which encroach on a person’s religious rights and beliefs. The businesses they own are not franchises, but privately owned family business! By the way, Christianity, while not condoning a homosexual life style, pedophilia, adultery, promiscuity, murder, does not scripturally condone the massacre of gays, or any of the sins I have mentioned, such as Islam does. You like to go after a religion which does not tolerate anything outside of itself, criticize Islam. Islam is massacring gays in the middle east. I, as a Christian do not condone Homosexuality, but it is heart breaking to see what Islam is doing to gays in the middle east. I have friends who are gay, and they know I will never condone their lifestyles, and we leave it at that.
“Targeted by the gay community?” If targeting were the substantive issue, then it’s far more accurate to say that the gay community has historically been & is still repeatedly targeted by those who claim that their personal beliefs represent Christianity at large.
As a Christian myself, I’m hard pressed to see how this bakery owner’s actions (or lily’s rant for that matter) reflects the Gospel of Christ. I, and many friends who are also Christian, will never condone attitudes or beliefs that discriminate against others in the name of Christ.