Well, the owners of the infamous Oregon bakery, Sweet Cakes By Melissa, have finally decided to put an end to the same-sex wedding cake situation. It has been revealed that Aaron Klein, co-owner with his wife Melissa Klein, have paid the $135,000 fine that they were given for refusing to make a same-sex wedding cake.
This past summer, the bakery was ordered to pay a lesbian couple after refusing to provide a cake for their wedding. Back in January 2013, Laurel Bowman and Rachel Cryer approached the bakery about having a cake made. According to the testimony, the Kleins told Bowman, “I’m very sorry, I believe I have wasted your time. We do not do cakes for same-sex weddings.” He then quoted Leviticus to Bowman and her mother.
Following the situation, the lesbian couple told others about what had happened and stated that it wasn’t about their religion, but rather they were discriminating. Bowman filed a consumer complaint with the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) stating:
“In november of 2011 my fiancé and I purchased a wedding cake from this establishment for her mother’s wedding. We spent 250. When we decided to get married ourselves chose to back and purchase a second cake. Today, January 17, 2013, we went for our cake tasting. When asked for a grooms name my soon to be mother in law informed them of my name. The owner then proceeded to say we were abominations unto the lord and refused to make another cake for us despite having already paid 250 once and having done business in the past. We were then informed that our money was not equal, my fiancé reduced to tears. This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) judge awarded Rachel Bowman $75,000, and her now wife, Laurel Bowman-Cryer, $60,000 in damages for their emotional suffering. This supposedly caused the couple’s bakery to shut down and other struggles, which is why the couple turned to GoFundMe. The platform immediately shut down the campaign and the couple was able to launch another campaign through Continue to Give.
Now, just a few months after the couple’s last vow to not pay, The Oregonian reported on Monday the Kleins handed over a check of $136,927.07 to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries’ Portland office for the damages and accrued interest.
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This past summer, the bakery was ordered to pay a lesbian couple after refusing to provide a cake for their wedding. Back in January 2013, Laurel Bowman and Rachel Cryer approached the bakery about having a cake made. According to the testimony, the Kleins told Bowman, “I’m very sorry, I believe I have wasted your time. We do not do cakes for same-sex weddings.” He then quoted Leviticus to Bowman and her mother.“In november of 2011 my fiancé and I purchased a wedding cake from this establishment for her mother’s wedding. We spent 250. When we decided to get married ourselves chose to back and purchase a second cake. Today, January 17, 2013, we went for our cake tasting. When asked for a grooms name my soon to be mother in law informed them of my name. The owner then proceeded to say we were abominations unto the lord and refused to make another cake for us despite having already paid 250 once and having done business in the past. We were then informed that our money was not equal, my fiancé reduced to tears. This is absolutely unacceptable.”
