Oregon Bakers To Pay for Same-Sex Discrimination

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An administrative law judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries on Friday recommended that the owners of a Portland bakery pay $135,000 to a lesbian couple for refusing to bake their wedding cake.

The proposed order, by administrative law judge Alan McCullough, was released Friday, according to The Oregonian. But the $135,000 number isn’t final. The Kleins have a ten-day window to file objections to the recommended fine, their attorney said. Oregon state labor commissioner Brad Avakian will make the final decision on the amount of damages the couple, Aaron and Melissa Klein, the co-owners of the bakery, must pay in the case.

The $135,000 recommended fine is the latest development in a case that goes back two years and started with the Kleins refusing to bake a wedding cake for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer. The Kleins cited their religion and opposition to gay marriage in refusing to bake the wedding cake.

In response, Laurel Bowman-Cryer filed an anti-discrimination complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Industry in 2013 arguing that the Sweet Cakes by Melissa violated Oregon’s Equality Act of 2007. In 2014, a Bureau of Labor and Industries found that the Kleins discriminated against the Bowman-Cryers because of their sexual orientation.

The Kleins gained national attention for their refusal to serve the gay couple.
Recently, supporters of the Kleins set up a crowdfunding account at the Samaritan’s Purse website. Seventy-thousand dollars in donations were raised for the Kleins at a GoFundMe crowdfunding website before that website was taken down, according to Oregon’s KOIN and the Associated Press. GoFundMe does not allow fundraising for causes that violate the law.

Over the weekend, The Daily Signal, which was created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, published an exclusive video featuring the Kleins.

“I don’t think we should be able to force anybody to go against their beliefs in this country. I think that we all can live peaceably together without having to force our will on somebody else and that’s what this situation’s really turned into —can somebody force somebody else to do something against their will?” Aaron Klein told The Daily Signal. “And the state of Oregon said yes, you can.”

(Photo credit: Youtube)

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