Baker bakersfield gay
Bakersfield Bakery Refuses Gay Couple
California's Unruh Civil Rights Operate says, "51 (b) All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic knowledge, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever." (bolding mine - author)
On Saturday, August 26, 2017, a gay couple was refused service by Cathy Miller, owner of Bakersfield's Tastries Bakery. Ted and Adam had an appointment to choose and order a wedding cake. They had been into the store twice prior to this scheduled appointment and had spoken to staff about the ordering a cake for their wedding.When Miller realized the cake would be for the wedding of the two men in front of her, she immediately "transferred" their appointment to another bakery. (Points for that, at least? on second thought, no... no points. Discrimination is still discrimination.)
Here's the Facebook post by Ted:
So the BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A California bakery owner can continue to refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples because it violates her Christian views, a judge ruled. The choice came after a lawyer for Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield argued that owner Cathy Miller’s right to free speech and free expression of religion trumps the argument that she violated a state anti-discrimination law. Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe agreed but said Monday his ruling was tied closely to the fact that Miller was being asked to make a cake for an event and that the act of creating it was protected artistic expression. Lampe cautioned that freedom of religion does not give businesses a right to refuse service to groups protected by the Unruh Civil Rights Act in other circumstances, the Bakersfield Californian reported. “A retail tire shop may not refuse to exchange a tire because the owner does not desire to sell tires to same sex couples,” Lampe wrote. “No baker may place their wares in a public display case, open their shop, and then refuse to trade because of race, religion, gender, or gender identification.” Miller In summary A California appeals court rules a baker can’t reject to sell a generic cake to a lesbian couple. It’s part of a series of cases shaping the debate over free speech and anti-discrimination laws. A Kern County baker violated California law when she refused to market a cake to a lesbian couple for their wedding, a state appeals court ruled this week in a suit brought by the state’s Civil Rights Department. If the scenario sounds familiar, that’s because it’s central to a series of cases that have for years been shaping the nation’s legal debate over free speech and anti-discrimination laws. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Colorado ruling that a baker had violated that state’s nondiscrimination law when he refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding. The judgment was based on the court’s conclusion that the Colorado civil rights commission handling the case had been prejudiced against the baker’s religious beliefs. The court in 2023 governed, also in a Colorado case, in favor of a website designer who opposed same-sex marriage on religious grounds and who was afraid the matching state statutes could in theory coerce her to style a wedding w After ending her 30-year teaching career in 2013, Cathy Miller opened Cathy’s Creations, or Tastries, a small bakery in Bakersfield, California, which she operated in accordance with her Christian beliefs. In addition to ready-to-eat baked goods, Miller sells Christian books and gifts to anyone on first-come, first-serve basis; she and her staff design custom baked goods for special events such as birthdays, quinceañeras, and weddings. However, Miller will not create specified custom baked goods if they are incompatible with her Christian beliefs, most notably that “marriage is a solemn covenantal union between one man and woman.” As such, she has turned away custom orders changeable with this principle. Controversy emerged in 2017 when two women tried to organize a cake commemorating the formalization of their “same-sex union”. Although Miller would not prepare a cake, she referred the couple to a baker who agreed to do so. Subsequently, she and her staff were “barraged by rape threats, pornographic emails [too vile to output here], and harassing mobile calls from men threatening to sexually assault them Baker can refuse to build same-sex wedding cakes, assess rules
Bakersfield baker sued for not making same-sex cake
Verdict this spring