Posted on 04/25/2015 7:20:29 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) completed its case against Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Gresham bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple planning to marry.
The bakery was fined $135,000.
Following the decision Sweet Cakes immediately started a GoFundMe page and raised over $100,000 before it was shut down.
As for the decision, BOLI issued the following statement on Friday regarding the agency’s Proposed Order in the Sweet Cakes case: “The facts of this case clearly demonstrate that the Kleins' unlawfully discriminated against the Complainants. Under Oregon law, businesses cannot discriminate or refuse service based on sexual orientation, just as they cannot turn customers away because of race, sex, disability, age or religion. Our agency is committed to fair and thorough enforcement of Oregon civil rights laws, including the Equality Act of 2007.”
In the Proposed Order, the administrative law judge awards $60,000 in damages to Laurel Bowman-Cryer and $75,000 in damages to Rachel Bowman-Cryer for emotional suffering stemming directly from unlawful discrimination. The amounts are less than what was sought by administrative prosecutors.
After the decision was announced Sweet Cakes started a GoFundMe page and was said to have $ 109,000 in just a few short hours.
Lisa Watson, of Cupcake Jones, started her own campaign to contact GoFundMe and report the campaign as being in violation of their terms of service. Watson’s own post on Facebook stated, “this business has been found GUILTY OF DISCRIMINATION and is being allowed to fundraise to pay their penalty. The gofundme terms of service address hate speech, bigotry, criminal activity, and sexism among other things in their campaign…The amount of money they have raised in a matter of a few hours by thousands of anonymous cowards is disgusting.”
Late on Friday GoFundMe stopped the Sweet Cakes campaign. Via GoFundMe: "After careful review by our team, we have found the "Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa" campaign to be in violation of our Terms and Conditions. The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal. While a different campaign was recently permitted for a pizzeria in Indiana, no laws were violated and the campaign remained live. However, the subjects of the "Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa" campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled."
We look forward to answering your question shortly. Thank you for reaching out!
- The Cupcake Jones team
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I bet they’re looking forward to it...lol
If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.
I lost my Oregon list when my computer crashed last year, so please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
What's good?
So problem solved. Send the gay pukes who want to get “married” over to Cupcake Jones which is pitching for their business
We have no Constitution. Only color of law...where you get to make law up as you go along.
This is the face of Neo-Fascism. Be prepared. Its only a matter of time before freedom loving people will have to fight, not in the courts, because we’ve already lost there, but on the field of battle. Its not what we want... its what is needed. If you allow yourself to be cowed by scum like these two... you deserve your enslavement.
I was brought up that this was a free country where you could disagree with anyone or anything and did not have to do anything you thought was wrong. The only thing you are not allowed to do is hurt someone physically or financially (by illegal means).
How did this all happen so fast? It went from they just want the same things other couples had like hospital visitations and insurance coverage, to bankrupting a family with children for not wanting to bake a freaking cake.
GoFundMe will soon meet some nasty backlash. Good!
Obama’s ‘Fundamental Change’. He does anything he wants and no one stands up to him. He now has a new AG who doesn’t care about the Laws on the books either, just like Holder. This country is well on it’s way to H***. And the elected Republicans just slow the slide a little bit.
Don’t let the couple get the money. Use funds collected to fight in court. This was an adminisrative decision.
They're the ones who are fighting this thing. They're the ones bearing the whole crushing burden of the legal expenses. I think they know how to use the money.
I ment don’t pay the lesbians.
OK!
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Just another forgotten basic right and fetter on unlimited government aka monarchy. We’ve returned to 1775, FRiend.
The fine is utterly absurd. It should have been $500. What pain or suffering have they gone through? They’re heroes to their side, plus they got a cake and got married, IIRC.
Thats probably the best way to do something like this: have a religious organization set up a general fund to provide relief for people like this.
It may cost more because of gift tax law. But the minute GoFundMe or any other similar organization cuts off the effort THEY can be sued for religious discrimination.
Lawfare works both ways.
No difference. Welcome to the USSA. Do what we tell you to do . Think what we tell you to think. Only State approved thoughts and actions are ALLOWED comrades.
It didn’t happen fast. It happened over the course of decades.
What happened was a tipping point was reached where there were enough radical Progressives in government, on the courts, on commissions to make stuff like this happen. Progressives were smart, they laid the foundations with feel-good policies ( I mean, who doesn’t hate discrimination? ) that were just ambiguous enough to permit the Fascism, but also non-threatening enough to pass/exist largely unnoticed/unchallenged. Once the tipping point of presence in authority was reached, all the mechansms were set and in place for use.
I spotted the following follow-up article at The Oregonian:
Sweet Cakes Owners Direct Donors to New Fundraising Site As They Look to Restart GoFundMe Campaign
The two-year-old saga of the Oregon bakers who violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws took another turn Saturday as they looked to restart a fundraising campaign to help them pay a potential six-figure debt.
GoFundMe shut down a page set up for the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa late Friday, saying it violated the terms of service for the crowdfunding web site.
In a statement explaining the decision to close the account, GoFundMe said:
“After careful review by our team, we have found the “Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa” campaign to be in violation of our Terms and Conditions. The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal. While a different campaign was recently permitted for a pizzeria in Indiana, no laws were violated and the campaign remained live. However, the subjects of the “Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa” campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled.”
Closure of the account came on the day that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries issued a proposed order directing Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple who had come to their Gresham bakery in January 2013 to order a cake for their wedding.
The Kleins refused, citing their Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage. An administrative law judge ruled that the Kleins illegally discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation and on Friday, in a proposed order, recommended they pay damages to compensate the two women for their emotional suffering. Final authority to set the amount of damages lies with State Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian in issuing a final order.
Meanwhile, there are campaigns at GoFundMe for gang bangers, convicted felons (not indicted, convicted), of all types. For example, Jeremy Meeks. Google ‘Superstar Felon Jeremy Meeks Raises Enough Money to Hire Top Lawyer’.
Excerpt:
News broke today that the felon with the famous mugshot, Jeremy Meeks, has officially raised enough money to purchase a well respected lawyer to represent him in court and Meeks also will be stylin’ in court, raising enough money to rock a Tom Ford Suit to his trial. It’s been reported that Meeks is planning to beat his case and is working on starting a career, still no word as to what exactly he will be doing but we can only imagine it will be something dealing with modeling. The money that the thirsty women across the world raised thru GoFundMe has also provided Meeks with the opportunity to hire a more than capable agent to help get his career started.
How hypocritical can they get?
http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2014/03/conservative_christian_groups_1.html
"Applefield (Avakain's campaign manager) said Avakian isn't ready to talk specifics. But it sure sounds like Avakian will oppose the initiative inspired in part by the case involving the Gresham bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa.
The proposed ballot measure would allow individuals and businesses to refuse to provide goods or services for same-sex weddings or commitment ceremonies if they have religious objections.
"The labor commissioner will fight any attempt," said Applefield, "to roll back civil rights protections for workers or Oregonians in the marketplace."
But... "final authority"? Can that be? Is this thing immune from the court system?
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