Gay Pastor Who Sued Whole Foods Admits He Lied About Gay Slur

KVUE reports, May 16, 2016, that openly gay pastor Jordan Brown has withdrawn his lawsuit against Whole Foods for intentional infliction of emotional distress by selling him a cake with a homophobic slur, and now says the company “did nothing wrong.”

Brown had made the initial allegations more than three weeks ago in April, claiming that he had ordered from Whole Foods a cake with the phrase “Love Wins” on it, but instead got a cake with that phrase and the word “Fag” on it.

In a statement this morning admitting that he was “wrong to pursue this matter and use the media to perpetuate this story,” Brown said: “I want to apologize to Whole Foods and its team members for questioning the company’s commitment to its values, and especially the baker associate who I understand was put in a terrible position because of my actions. I apologize to the LGBT community for diverting attention from real issues. I also want to apologize to my partner, my family, my church family, and my attorney.”

Brown was represented in the initial lawsuit by Austin Kaplan. In a news conference announcing his lawsuit, Brown said while holding back tears, “For me, it was humiliating.”

The next day, Whole Foods fired back with a countersuit for defamation, saying it’s standing by its employees. The company also released surveillance video pointing to Brown’s tampering with the cake.

Austin Attorney Brad Bonilla of  Bonilla Law Firm remarked that “A counter suit this quick is very, very rare. And I think the message with filing a counter suit that quick suggests that Whole Foods is vigorously intending to fight this and that they really believe this suit is without merit and baseless.”

Whole Foods also filed sanctions against Brown’s attorney Austin Kaplan, which would require him to pay all costs associated with the lawsuits. Bonilla explained, “An attorney has an ethical duty to ensure that they have a reasonable belief that this claim is not frivolous. And so the attorney would have to do some type of investigation to ensure that this is a viable case to present.”

Whole Foods has now dropped their counter suit after “the truth has come to light,” according to a statement from the company.

Too bad. I think Whole Foods should sue the pants off Jordan Brown [no pun intended].

Jordan Brown is the founder and leading pastor of the Church of Open Doors that meets on Sundays in a meeting room of an apartment complex in East Austin, Texas. The Church, with the slogan “We’ve taken tradition and religious doctrine and thrown them out the window,” claims to be non-denomination Christian.

~Eowyn