The Oregon bakery that gained infamy for first turning away a lesbian couple, then doxxing the couple after they complained, apparently hasn’t learned its lesson. Last week, the bakery’s owners decided to show their idea of “Christian love” by sending specially-made cakes to 10 LGBT groups in California and Nevada. They included a special gift with those cakes–a viciously homophobic video.
Melissa and Aaron Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Gresham–a suburb of Portland–revealed that for some time, they’ve been in touch with evangelical filmmaker Ray Comfort–better known as Kirk Cameron’s BFF. Recently, Comfort released a movie, “Audacity,” in which an aspiring comedian uses a performance to speak out against marriage equality. As part of the movie, Comfort turns people on the street against marriage equality by making them think that if adultery and fornication are wrong, homosexuality is wrong as well. Apple, meet orange.
Klein told The (Portland) Oregonian that they came up with the idea of sending cakes to LGBT groups in order to show that “we really do love them.” The Kleins decided to make cakes showing a red heart with “We really do love you!” in white icing, with red, white, and blue colors to represent freedom. On Wednesday, they drove from their home in Sandy, Oregon–another Portland suburb–to the headquarters of Comfort’s Living Waters Publications in Bellflower, California. From there, the cakes were shipped to 10 LGBT groups in and around Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Comfort even enclosed a $25 restaurant gift card.
At least one recipient of those cakes was not impressed. Jason Howe of Equality California told Huffington Post that while the film appears to be of the “hate the sin, not the sinner” variety, it leaves a bad taste in his mouth that the Kleins still think “they can choose their customers and not treat everybody equally.” As he sees it, the Kleins are pushing a “false narrative” that there’s a conflict between Christianity and homosexuality. Jeana Frazzini of Basic Rights Oregon, which didn’t get a cake, was equally unimpressed. She told The Oregonian that she thinks it’s rather disingenuous for the Kleins to send those cakes one day and then “stand at a podium and advocate for discrimination against LGBTQ people.”
The more I think about it, this episode may say more about Comfort than it does about the Kleins. For those who don’t know, when the Oregon Department of Justice notified the Kleins that Laurel Bowman and Rachel Cryer–now Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer–had complained about being turned away, the Kleins posted the notice on Sweet Cakes’ Facebook page. Bowman and Cryer’s address was completely unredacted. As a result, Bowman and Cryer received ugly death threats against both them and their foster kids.
According to the final order in this case, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries was so outraged by the Kleins’ actions that it initially wanted to fine the them in part for the emotional distress caused by the threats. However, bureau commissioner Brad Avakian ultimately decided that Oregon law didn’t support a fine for “emotional harm relating to media attention.” He did find that the emotional distress caused by the original act of discrimination merited a fine of $135,000.
Just because doxxing the Bowman-Cryers may not have been illegal under Oregon law doesn’t make it any less despicable, though. No matter how much you disagree with someone, plastering anyone’s home address on social media–especially the home address of a private person–is flat-out unacceptable. And that’s true no matter what side of the aisle you’re on. Is Comfort so determined to get his message out that he’s willing to deal with a couple who thinks this is acceptable? Perhaps we should ask him–politely, of course.
