Victoria Childress
Posted on 11/16/2011 2:07:21 PM PST by NYer
DES MOINES, Iowa, November 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Iowa baker who politely declined to provide a wedding cake for two lesbians based on her Christian values may face legal action from the couple.
Same-sex “marriage” was legalized in Iowa in 2009 by the state Supreme Court, and a 2007 state civil rights act disallows discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in matters of employment, education, housing, and public accommodation.
On Tuesday KCCI 8 Des Moines interviewed Trina Vodraska and Janelle Sievers, who said they were “shocked” when a local wedding cake business owner declined to provide the confection for their ceremony.
“It was degrading, you know, it was like she chastised us for wanting to do business with her,” said Vodraska.
Join a Facebook page to defend marriage here.
Victoria Childress, who runs the business from her home, said she told the couple that she was unable to give them a cake based on her Christian convictions. Both she and the couple say the conversation was cordial.
“I didn’t do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle. It is my right as a business owner. It is my right, and it’s not to discriminate against them,” said Childress.
“It’s not so much to do with them, as it’s to do with me, and my walk with God and what I will answer (to) him for,” she added.
“They thanked me for being honest with them. They were very pleasant. I did not belittle them, I did not speak rudely to them. There were no condescending remarks made, nothing.”
The news station reports that the couple is unsure whether to file a civil rights complaint with the state. However, the couple has since reportedly released a statement calling Childress a “bigot,” and the baker says she has been deluged with hate mail that she has stopped reading.
“It’s really hard to read things like that,” she told FOX News. “I’m a pretty quiet, soft-spoken person. But when I stand up for my convictions against things, I’m very strong when it comes to that.”
Christian businesses in America, including reception site owners and photographers declining to service homosexual couples, have routinely been targeted for lawsuits and harrassment in states that have legalized same-sex “marriage” or civil unions. Often the complaints spread through media, particularly gay blogs, where gay rights supporters are encouraged to keep up pressure on the offenders.
Ping!
Ummm, the sign - “We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To Anyone” ...
They couldn’t just go to another cake baker...
NO...
the whole point of “gay rights” is to punish Christians for their beliefs.
Good for her!
This is ridiculous. Are they saying they cannot find another baker? Why do they believe they should be able to force uniform beliefs on everyone?
You can’t refuse to do business with someone based on their race,
but, contrary to the latest push by the left, “gay” is NOT “the new black”.
Property rights.
Just like your private home, your private business should be allowed to refuse interaction with anyone on ANY criteria you so choose.
Let me repeat that. ANY criteria.
Should have taken their money then made the cake wrong. Nothing obvious, just leave out a few ingredients: vanilla, sugar, etc.
Yum.
she should sue them for intolerance.
i would.
and i would bake the judge a cake.
mmmmmm
cake.
t
The baker will lose. Her business is a public accomodation, and in Iowa she cannot discriminate based on gender preference.
“Lesbian couple mulls action against Christian wedding cake baker”
should read,
“Fascist lesbian couple mulls forcing Christian baker to make wedding cake for them via the Leftist-dominated court system”
I did not know that Iowa had legalized gayness.
While a business owner in Montana I had a similar experience when a local “artist” came into my Office Supply and Print Shop and wanted me to make posters of some of her art.
She brought it in for me to look at and when she unfolded it it was some of the most vile, graphich lesbian sexual perversion I could imagine.
I quickly folded it back over and told her I would not print it.
She became incensed and said if I was open to the public that I “had to print it,” or she would file suit against me.
I walked her to the front of my shop and showed her a small sign that I had hung over the front counter and over the door into the back which said, “I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, at anytime.”
I told her that was “my” right and she could sue until she was blue in the face but I still would not print it...I then told her that if she happened to win, which I believe she didn;t have a snow balls chance of doing in that town or county...that I would then shut down my business before I would print it and she would get no satisfaction from me...to the point of being fined and going to jail.
She took her business elsewhere and I never saw her in my shop again.
Damn that private sector. In the statist utopia all citizens will be forced to accept the unacceptable!
What’s the difference between a business and a “public accomodation”? And how do you balance with a person’s right to refuse to engage in any kind of transaction.
Last time I checked no one can force another against their will to do business with them. If that right is gone then we have a tyranny.
I want my cake and I want to eat it too!
If the Leftist Lesbians decide they want to sue then we should rally to this lady’s defense and help her out with getting legal representation.
Well, we knew this was coming.
IIRC, there was a similar story a while back at a cookie shop in Indianapolis, Indiana. Something about declining to do business with a local gay/lesbian group or something. IIRC, people came out in droves to support the bakery owners and business went through the roof for a time.
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