Colorado Court Rules Against Baker Who Won’t Bake Wedding Cakes For Gay Couples
The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against Jack Phillips and said that he violated Colorado’s public accommodations law when he refused to bake a wedding cake in 2012 for gay couple David Mullins and Charlie Craig. Phillips is the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop located in Lakewood, Colorado.
According to Phillips, he refused his customers as he believes that baking a wedding cake for a gay couple goes against his religious beliefs. The court, however, says that Phillips’ reasons do not justify his actions based on the law, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Phillips says that he caters to gays and lesbians, but he refuses to serve them when it comes to wedding cake orders as he believes that marriage is only for men and women.
“CADA prohibits places of public accommodations from basing their refusal to serve customers on their sexual orientation, and Masterpiece violated Colorado’s public accommodations law by refusing to create a wedding cake for Craig’s and Mullins’ same-sex wedding celebration.”
The three-judge panel ruled in favor of the gay couple and provided a 64-page opinion piece that states Phillips cannot use his religious beliefs to refuse customers, as the Denver Post reports.
Ria Mar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, fought in court for Craig and Mullins. She also released a statement regarding the issue.
“In America, no one should be turned away from a shop or restaurant because of who they are or who they love. Then every lesbian or gay person, every woman, every person of color, every person of every faith can walk into a store, a bank, a hospital, and know that they will get the same service as everyone else, we will have won. Until then, we continue to fight for the equal treatment we all deserve.”
The Colorado Court’s decision is another victory for the LGBTQ community. It seems that business owners refusing their services to gay couples is not new, as more and more stories like this one are shared. As the Inquisitr previously reported, Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Oregon, also refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. For discrimination, owners Aaron and Melissa Klein were ordered to pay as much as $75,000 per complaint, and in that case for the gay couple, $150,000 for each of them.
Colorado court to bakery: Turning away gays is discrimination, not free speech. http://t.co/Vrm3Qw55Lo
— Slate (@Slate) August 13, 2015
Victory! Colorado Court of Appeals rules that bakery violated law by refusing to make wedding cake – http://t.co/gC8XE27pHd #LGBTRights
— ACLU of Colorado (@ACLUofColorado) August 13, 2015
Colorado court rules Baker can’t cite religious beliefs in refusing to make cakes for gay weddings: http://t.co/OUV6Syxb4R
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 13, 2015
[Photo by David McNew/Getty Images]
