Free Republic

For nine years, the state of Oregon pursued our family and our little bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, because we could not in good conscience create a custom cake celebrating a same-sex wedding. Over the years, the state deprived us of a fair hearing, erroneously issued an injunction limiting what we could say, improperly ordered us to pay $135,000, and violated our rights to freely exercise our beliefs. In early 2013, Aaron welcomed two potential customers, a woman and her mother, into our bakery as we welcome everyone. When he found out they were looking for someone to create a...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Court of Appeals for a second time has upheld a ruling by the state civil rights division that found that an Oregon bakery illegally discriminated against a same-sex couple by refusing to sell them a wedding cake in 2013. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports, however, the court on Wednesday also found the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries did not exhibit religious neutrality in issuing an $135,000 fine to Sweet Cakes by Melissa for illegal discrimination and returned the case to the civil rights division to reassess its fine. The case began nine years ago, when...

Melissa Klein, co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, in Gresham, talks with a customer on Feb. 5, 2013. (Everton Bailey Jr./staff) The owners of a shuttered Gresham bakery fined by the state after refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple want to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lawyers for Aaron and Melissa Klein, the former owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, filed a petition Monday asking the high court to overturn the state's order to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to the couple they turned away. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries...

An Oregon bureaucrat who waged political jihad against the owners of a Christian bakery was given the heave-ho by voters. Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian was defeated by Republican Dennis Richardson in his bid to be Secretary of State. It's the first time a Republican has been elected to a statewide office in Oregon since 2002. So consider this – Avakian was too liberal for what is arguably one of the most liberal states in the country. Avakian, a passionate advocate for the LGBTQIA crowd, was thrust into the national spotlight when he declared war on a Christian bakery in 2013.

You’ve seen the story multiple times already: a Christian baker declines to cater a gay wedding, and gets sued in the process. The most publicized came out of Oregon, where the bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa chose not to bake a wedding for a same-sex wedding. Rachel Bowman-Cryer and her mother visited Sweet Cakes planning to order a wedding cake. Bowman-Cryer had purchased a cake previously from the Kleins for her mother’s sixth wedding. Bowman-Cryer wanted to have the same cake she had purchased for her mother. That’s when Aaron Klein asked what the name of the bride and groom...

In 2013 - a small family bakery in Northwestern Oregon refused to make a cake for a lesbian wedding. The owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa had no idea that their decision to follow the teachings of their Christian faith would lead to a multi-year legal battle. It’s a battle still being waged. Aaron and Melissa Klein were eventually punished by the state of Oregon -- fined $135 thousand dollars for refusing to participate in the lesbian wedding event. It was the price they had to pay for refusing to violate their conscience. They also made the painful decision...

Melissa Klein was checking her bank accounts just a few weeks before Christmas when her face turned ashen. The money was gone - every single penny. Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries had confiscated all the cash in Mrs. Klein's checking account and savings account as well as a special account set aside for their church tithe. (snip) "It was like my breath was taken away," Mrs. Klein told me in a telephone conversation. "I panicked. Everything was gone." And, as I said before, Commissioner Avakian even seized money set aside for You Know Who. "We had three accounts," she...

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that "Sweet Cakes by Melissa" owners Melissa and Aaron Klein paid their state-ordered damages to a lesbian couple with check totaling $136,927.07 - but that isn't the whole story. According to Fox News writer Todd Starnes, who spoke with Melissa Klein a few weeks before Christmas, Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries confiscated all of the money in her checking and savings accounts, including one that had money set aside for her church tithe. They totaled nearly $7,000.

The Oregon couple who made national headlines when they refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding are now refusing to pay state-ordered damages to the lesbian couple they turned away. In response, state officials have gone to court to establish their right to place a property lien or attach other assets belonging to Aaron and Melissa Klein, proprietors of the Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery. . . . "It's difficult to understand the Kleins' unwillingness to pay the debt when they have, very publicly, raised nearly a half million dollars," labor bureau spokesman Charlie Burr said in an...

A crowdfunding campaign for the Oregon bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa has set a site record by raising $352,500 in about two months after being kicked off the GoFundMe website, far exceeding the initial goal of $150,000. Jesse Wellhoefer, founder of Continue to Give, said the Sweet Cakes effort has raised more than any previous campaign on behalf of individuals in the three-year-old crowdfunding website’s history. Continue to Give also handles ongoing fundraising for nonprofit organizations as well as mobile and kiosk tithing for churches. GoFundMe, the nation’s largest crowdfunder, removed a campaign for Sweet Cakes by Melissa in April...

After getting hit with a financially-crushing $135,000 fine last week for their decision to not bake a cake for a lesbian wedding, the Christian owners of the Oregon "Sweetcakes by Melissa" bakery say they have until Monday to pay up, or else the state of Oregon could place a lien on their home. The punishing fine was levied by Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industry against the couple for unlawful discrimination against a same-sex couple. They must pay in full by Monday with "personal property" rather than only business assets and the fine "has the potential to financially ruin" the...

Excellent. Score one for the good guys, even if it’s only a partial victory. The State of Oregon has failed in its attempt to bankrupt Aaron and Melissa Klein for the crime of declining to bake a cake - as the preposterous $135,000 fine it levied was no match for the willingness of good people to help out the Kleins and their now exclusively online business, Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Through a campaign via Continue to Give, people who still respect both faith and freedom have responded to the following appeal by contributing more than $200,000: HTML5 video is not...

Score one for the good guys, even if it's only a partial victory. The State of Oregon has failed in its attempt to bankrupt Aaron and Melissa Klein for the crime of declining to bake a cake - as the preposterous $135,000 fine it levied was no match for the willingness of good people to help out the Kleins and their now exclusively online business, Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Through a campaign via Continue to Give, people who still respect both faith and freedom have responded to the following appeal by contributing more than $200,000:

After getting hit with a financially-crushing $135,000 fine Thursday for their decision to not bake a cake for a lesbian wedding, the owner of the Oregon "Sweetcakes by Melissa" bakery has a dire warning for Americans. "For years, we've heard same-sex marriage will not affect anybody," Aaron Klein said in an interview with The Blaze. "I'm here firsthand to tell everyone in America that it has already impacted people." Aaron and his wife Melissa are required to immediately write a $135,000 check to the lesbian couple they refused to bake a wedding cake for, Rachel Cryer-Bowman and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, to...

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian on Thursday ordered the owners of a former Gresham bakery to pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple for refusing to make them a wedding cake. Avakian's ruling upheld a preliminary finding earlier this year that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa had discriminated against the women on the basis of their sexual orientation.

The Daily Signal has exclusively learned that the government agency responsible for enforcing Oregon’s anti-discrimination law appears to be working closely with a powerful gay rights advocacy group in its case against Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Communications between the agency, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, and the LGBT organization, Basic Rights Oregon, raise questions about potential bias in the state’s decision to charge the Kleins with discrimination for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. In April, a judge for the agency recommended the Kleins be fined $135,000. Communications obtained...

In January 2013, Rachel Cryer and her mother walked into Sweet Cakes By Melissa, a bakery in Gresham, Oregon, and tried to order a wedding cake. Aaron Klein, the co-owner (and Melissa’s husband), was informed Cryer would be marrying another woman. He apologized and told them that providing a cake for a same-sex wedding violated his Christian convictions. Cryer walked out of the store. In a suburb adjacent to Portland, one of the most progressive cities in America, Sweet Cakes By Melissa was living on borrowed time once the incident became public. (The city is so famously tolerant that Sam...

The owners of an Oregon bakery learned Friday that there is a severe price to pay for following their Christian faith. A judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) recommended a lesbian couple should receive $135,000 in damages for their emotional suffering after Sweet Cakes by Melissa refused to make them a wedding cake. As a result - Aaron and Melissa Klein could lose everything they own — including their home. The Oregonian reports the recommended penalty is not final and could be raised or lowered by State Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. The controversy started in 2013...

Late Friday night, anyone looking for the GoFundMe page set up to help the Gresham bakers facing a large unlawful discrimination award would have hit a dead end. A supporter of Aaron and Melissa Klein set up the campaign to help raise money for the couple after an administrative law judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries issued a proposed order recommending they pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple from Portland.

The owners of a Christian bakery who refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple are facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines after they were found guilty of violating the couple’s civil rights. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said they found “substantial evidence” that Sweet Cakes by Melissa discriminated against the lesbian couple and violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, a law that protects the rights of the LGBT community. Last year, the bakery’s owners refused to make a wedding cake for Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman, of Portland, citing their Christian beliefs....