raayah:
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Gresham bakery that wouldn't make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple must pay them $135,000 in damages, the Bureau of Labor and Industries ruled Thursday.

"This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage. It is about a business's refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal," BOLI said in its final ruling. "Within Oregon's public accommodations law is the basic principle of human decency that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation, has the freedom to fully participate in society. The ability to enter public places, to shop, to dine, to move about unfettered by bigotry."

The couple, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, said they are happy with the decision following a difficult two years that included attacks on social media and even death threats.

"This has been a horrible ordeal for our entire family," the couple said in a statement. "We never imagined finding ourselves caught up in a fight for social justice. We knew it was on us to set an example for our two kids - to stand up for what is right."

Aaron Klein, the co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, said he plans to file an appeal with the Oregon Court of Appeal.

"The first amendment guarantees my right to freedom of speech," Klein said. "We are looking forward to getting [the case] in a court that recognizes the constitution."

In January 2013, Sweet Cakes by Melissa Bakery declined to make a wedding cake for the Bowman-Cryers, citing their religious beliefs.

The couple filed a discrimination complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Industries.

In April of 2015, an administrative law judge proposed that the owners of the bakery, Aaron and Melissa Klein, pay $135,000 to the couple. The judge, Alan McCullough, ruled that Sweet Cakes by Melissa discriminated against the Bowman-Cryers by refusing to bake them a wedding cake.

The case is one that has been referenced in the national debate over religious freedom and discrimination against the LGBT community.

The award is for emotional suffering. The maximum penalty that could have been assessed was $150,000, or $75,000 per person. Judge McCullough awarded $60,000 in damages to Laurel Bowman-Cryer and $75,000 in damages to Rachel Bowman-Cryer.

Both sides reviewed the proposal and had the chance to file exceptions.

Aaron and Melissa Klein fought the judge's ruling, citing their religious freedom and inability to pay the funds.

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian issued the final order July 2. According to BOLI spokesman Charlie Burr, the $135,000 award is comparable to other similar cases and is not the largest equality act ruling the state has seen "by a long shot."

Related: Daimler reaches $2.4 million settlement after racial complaints

Basic Rights Oregon commended Avakian's decision and for enforcing Oregon's anti-discrimination laws.

"Religious freedom is a fundamental part of America, and is written into our state's constitution already," said Nancy Haque, Basic Rights Oregon's Co-Director. "But those beliefs don't entitle any of us to discriminate against others. Religious liberty should not be used to discriminate against people."


KGW
Gresham bakery that denied same-sex wedding cake closes

Klein said Avakian has been biased "from the get-go" and he was not surprised by the final order.

"When you have [a government] that tells you what you have to say in this situation it should scare everybody," he said.

The Kleins closed their Gresham store in 2013 and operate the bakery from home. Aaron Klein has been employed as a garbage collector, Melissa said, although he injured his shoulder and isn't currently working.

Following the April ruling, the Kleins started a GoFundMe account, which has since been taken down. They received around $60,000 after taxes once it was shuttered. They continue to search for funds to pay the remaining $75,000.

On Thursday, Melissa Klein posted a statement to her Facebook page:

The final ruling has been made today. We have been charged with $135,000 in emotional damages, But also now Aaron has been charged with advertising. (Basically talking about not wanting to participate in a same-sex wedding) This effectively strips us of all our first amendment rights. According to the state of Oregon we neither have freedom of religion or freedom of speech. We will NOT give up this fight, and we will NOT be silenced. We stand for God's truth, God's word and freedom for ALL americans. We are here to obey God not man, and we will not conform to this world. If we were to lose everything it would be totally worth it for our Lord who gave his one and only son, Jesus, for us! God will win this fight!

http://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/2015/04/24/judge-sweet-cakes-bakery-should-pay-135000-to-lesbian-couple/26321227/

An2elect2:
They wont stop at just having their way, they will go steps further in ensuring that those who think otherwise or speak against their sexuality face castigation.

vooks:

That should worry every Christian more than the SCOTUS ruling. And I expect more of such frivolities in due time.

vooks:

That should worry every Christian more than the SCOTUS ruling. And I expect more of such frivolities in due time.

johnydon22:

Since it is a private firm i think everyone should have the right to render their services to whom ever they choose.

It is their bakery and so they can decide to sell to you or not regardless of your gender orientation or are they making fuse of it because they are gay couples?

Since it is their private bakery, i am against fining them for not rendering their service to someone they choose not to, it is not by force that someone must render services to you, keep your money and i keep my services.. thats a right.

I think America should know when they are overlapping the rights of others to uphold an overstepping boundary of another.


I only do not support when people in government firms refuse to attend to couples because of the orientation, that is bringing personal ideas or religion into the government and that is not acceptable as long as the law of the state supports that right.

wiegraf:
harsh IMO

but we Nigerians seriously underestimate how damaging mental trauma can be

Dnacode:


I really hate to sight this example because I am a Christian and I love Jesus.... But what if it were a christian that went to the private bakery of someone with the mark of the beast and the person discriminates against him because he doesn't have the mark?

Dnacode:


I really hate to sight this example because I am a Christian and I love Jesus.... But what if it were a christian that went to the private bakery of someone with the mark of the beast and the person discriminates against him because he doesn't have the mark?

johnydon22:
Like i said above every private firm have their right to either sell to you or leave it.. the only problem is if it is a government firm. . belief and religions should be kept out of the government.


A muslim clerk have no right to deny a christian woman diving license because his beliefs are against it and same goes with a christian clerk have no right to deny people marriage certificate because your belief is against their orientation
.
Religious freedom means you are free to practise your own religion but doesn't mean you should force others to live by your beliefs in a state where the law recognizes their rights..

Dnacode:

And now religious people are beginning to feel the jitters...
It seemed the tables are turning....
I have always told us Christians that the way we go about things makes it seem as if we are the boss.
It is not so. Christians should remember that they were once abused, insulted, discriminated against and persecuted 2000 yrs ago...
Let them not think it cannot happen again cos it will happen.

I am an effeminate man(a man who does like a woman).
I have prayed to God, bound n cast, gone to deliverances yet I can't stop behaving like a woman. I have learnt to cast my hope n faith in God concerning this issue and stop hitting my head on the wall about it. God made me so when he is ready to change me back to a man, let him.

But one thing I have seen is that many Christians have discriminated against me just because of my effeminateness. They do not know the kind of pain or pressure I pass thru. They have abused me, insulted me, refused to help me, gossiped about me, harrased me, forced me to sleep with women(as if that will make me stop being effeminate).

I am a doctor, I know the level of discrimination I passed through at the university. It nearly made me fail out of medical sch. My only help was God n my will...

Even in my workplace I have been discriminated against. I had to leave my former workplace because of this. I did not molest any patient nor staff sexually---my hands are clean, yet because of my womanish attitude they were all calling me HOMO... Funny enough the lady that calls me homo at the front comes in secret to beg me marry her sister(double standard). U can imagine.

In my present workplace my consultant has refused to teach me surgeries because of this very issue. He has even warned me from coming to his house. What did I do to deserve all these?

Nothing!
Just that I am effeminate. And so he has left me to learn surgery at the hands of nurses... Nurses!!!

They abuse me at every little mistake n treat me like shit.

I have so much to say but I will stop here.
I forgive them all but there are some I just tell, " the way you have treated me, may your son be effeminate and your daughter manly so they they will feel the sting of society and so that you will feel the pain of discrimination indirectly"

Ciao n sorry for my epistle.

Dnacode:




And now religious people are beginning to feel the jitters...
It seemed the tables are turning....
I have always told us Christians that the way we go about things makes it seem as if we are the boss.
It is not so. Christians should remember that they were once abused, insulted, discriminated against and persecuted 2000 yrs ago...
Let them not think it cannot happen again cos it will happen.
I am an effeminate man(a man who does like a woman).
I have prayed to God, bound n cast, gone to deliverances yet I can't stop behaving like a woman. I have learnt to cast my hope n faith in God concerning this issue and stop hitting my head on the wall about it. God made me so when he is ready to change me back to a man, let him.

But one thing I have seen is that many Christians have discriminated against me just because of my effeminateness. They do not know the kind of pain or pressure I pass thru. They have abused me, insulted me, refused to help me, gossiped about me, harrased me, forced me to sleep with women(as if that will make me stop being effeminate).

I am a doctor, I know the level of discrimination I passed through at the university. It nearly made me fail out of medical sch. My only help was God n my will...

Even in my workplace I have been discriminated against. I had to leave my former workplace because of this. I did not molest any patient nor staff sexually---my hands are clean, yet because of my womanish attitude they were all calling me HOMO... Funny enough the lady that calls me homo at the front comes in secret to beg me marry her sister(double standard). U can imagine.

In my present workplace my consultant has refused to teach me surgeries because of this very issue. He has even warned me from coming to his house. What did I do to deserve all these?

Nothing!
Just that I am effeminate. And so he has left me to learn surgery at the hands of nurses... Nurses!!!

They abuse me at every little mistake n treat me like shit.

I have so much to say but I will stop here.
I forgive them all but there are some I just tell, " the way you have treated me, may your son be effeminate and your daughter manly so they they will feel the sting of society and so that you will feel the pain of discrimination indirectly"

Ciao n sorry for my epistle.

shaboti:
oh my God.

CHARLOE:
@ dnacode, so sorry to hear ur story, u just changed my perspective of gays, Still find d act disgusting tho, esp wen they try to cross their boundry to harrass str8 guys. Just wondering, do u like men or women? As in are u gay or just effeminate but str8.

Dnacode:


On a serious note I have feelings for people of the same sex but I do not like it. I find it annoying and irritating. If I know how to kill myself without going to hell, I would have done so long ago.

I do not engage in gay sex because of God but I am dying daily in my sexual mind because there are guys everywhere I feel for but I can't just do it.

It is really destabilizing my being.
Many times I come back from work so tired and pent up.
I do not know how to release whatever tension built up in me throughout the day.
I can't sleep with girls- I do not feel for them.
I can't sleep with boys-i feel for them but God says no!
I can't masturbate---God says No!
I am dying!

I do not club because I found out that when I used to because of my effeminateness, bisexuals used to ask for my numb. Yes I always wanted to give them but God says No!

I am tired, just tired of everything!!!.

To crown it all, everybody thinks I am doing it because I am effeminate and they gossip, gossip and gossip!

There was a day I went to a boy's shop who was doing J.S.S.C.E.
I was teaching him mathematics because I was quite good at it in sec sch.
Can you imagine the whole rubbish this boy told me when I came the next day?
He said that one Igbo aunty who saw me walking out of their shop was abusing me and warning him not to associate with me. She said I will 'convert' him to homosexuality.

Why did she say this? I do not know.
I never had any intentions of doing such. My hands r clean.
She told him all effeminate guys are gays.
What did I do?
I stopped going to teach him.


Another day I went to buy something in another Igbo woman's shop. Come n see the way she abused me!!!

Imagine abusing a doctor!!! Hmmm.

As a teenager, my aunty who is now in Germany floogged me with wire just because I am effeminate.

Jesus oooo! Y was I created?
I am tired of everything.
I just don't know what to say again.

Father into your hands do I commend my Spirit.

musKeeto:

First step is to embrace your homosexuality. You can only 'deny' your nature not change it. If it can't be denied, it is a part of you.
You are lucky. You live in a time when communication is easy. Seek fellow people like you and get their counsel. I'm not her to convince you or argue you with you. Help is always there to those who seek.

Dnacode:


I refuse to embrace 'my homosexuality'.
I rather seek justification by placing my faith in Jesus.
Thanks.

musKeeto:

Your choice. Goodluck.