Panel: Baker must make cakes for gay weddings

[mystery-ak]

http://news.yahoo.com/panel-baker-must-cakes-gay-weddings-172619256.html


Panel: Baker must make cakes for gay weddings
Associated Press
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI 1 hour ago

DENVER (AP) — Colorado's Civil Rights Commission on Friday ordered a baker to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples, finding his religious objections to the practice did not trump the state's anti-discrimination statutes.

The unanimous ruling from the seven-member commission upheld an administrative law judge's finding in December that Jack Phillips violated civil rights law when he refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple in 2012. The couple sued.

"I can believe anything I want, but if I'm going to do business here, I'd ought to not discriminate against people," Commissioner Raju Jaram said.

Phillips, a devout Christian who owns the Masterpiece Cakeshop in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, said the decision violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of his religion. "I will stand by my convictions until somebody shuts me down," he told reporters after the ruling.

He added his bakery has been so overwhelmed by supporters eager to buy cookies and brownies that he does not currently make wedding cakes.

The couple who sued Phillips, Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, were pleased that the commission roundly rejected Phillips' arguments. "We're just thrilled by that," Mullins said.

Gay marriage remains illegal in Colorado. Mullins and Craig were married in Massachusetts and wanted a wedding cake for a reception to celebrate their union back home in Colorado.

State law prohibits businesses from refusing to serve customers based on their sexual orientation.

The panel issued its ruling verbally. It ordered Phillips to stop discriminating against gay people and to report quarterly for two years on staff anti-discrimination training and any customers he refuses to serve.

Phillips' attorney said she was considering appealing the ruling to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

[jmyrlefuller]

He added his bakery has been so overwhelmed by supporters eager to buy cookies and brownies that he does not currently make wedding cakes.

Well played.

[Chieftain]

Well played.

yah....until some reprobate comes in and orders a gay themed birthday cake.  It will not end until he is run out of business.  If it could be arranged for him to be stoned to death in public for apostasy, many would welcome that as well.

[mountaineer]

How long before a couple of homosexuals demand he make wedding cookies for them, then?

[speekinout]

He can make cakes, cookies and other generic baked goods. He could also make generic wedding cakes; just not any by specific order. He doesn't have to ask what the purchasers are buying them for. If a gay couple wants to buy a cake with a bride and groom on it, and switch the decoration to two men or two women, so be it. He shouldn't have to cooperate.

It's too bad that traditional couples (one man and one woman) can no longer celebrate their marriage, but that's where we are. We have to bow down to those who represent maybe 10% of the population. Being in the majority is evil by definition.
Heterosexual white men are to be shunned. 

[Oceander]

All he need do if he suspects he's being played by some queer couple is to say "let me check my calendar to see if I can accomodate you", go back into his office, flip some papers around, then come back out and say "I'm sorry, but I just don't have room in my calendar."  End of story.