Oregon Live: The Oregon bakers who cited their Christian beliefs in refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding sent custom-designed cakes this week to 10 LGBTQ organizations as an expression of love, the bakery’s namesake said Thursday.
Melissa Klein said she and her husband Aaron, owners of the Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery, sent the cakes Wednesday to the groups, along with a copy of the movie “Audacity” and a gift card provided by Ray Comfort, the film’s executive producer.
Comfort is a New Zealand-born evangelist who wrote and acts in the movie, which “delivers an unexpected, eye-opening look at the controversial topic of homosexuality,” according to the film’s website.
“We had been speaking with Ray Comfort back and forth about his movie Audacity,” Melissa Klein said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive. “We came up with the idea of sending cakes to express that we really do love them. Ray Comfort also put a $25 gift card to a restaurant inside.”
The Kleins
The Kleins drove the cakes down to southern California to Comfort’s Living Waters ministry and shipped from there to the California LGBT Arts Alliance, Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center, Californians Against Hate, CFAC Headquarters, Equality California, Out and Equal, The South Bay LGBT Community Organization, The LGBTQ Center Long Beach, Los Angeles LGBT Center McDonald/Wright Building and LGBT of Southern Nevada.
The Daily Signal, the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation, reported the couple’s action earlier this week.
The cakes are decorated with fondant icing and a red heart proclaiming “We really do love you!” and feature red, white and blue colors inside to represent freedom, the Signal reported.
The Kleins, who live in Sandy, are among a handful of bakers, florists and photographers across the United States who have become known for their stance in support of religious freedom, arguing their beliefs against gay and lesbian marriage should enable them to refuse services for same-sex ceremonies.
They have appealed a state order to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, a Portland couple they turned away from their now-shuttered Gresham storefront shop. Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian issued a final order in July that said the Kleins’ religious beliefs are trumped by state laws forbidding Oregon businesses from discriminating against customers on the basis of sexual orientation.
Melissa Klein said in her email Thursday that she hadn’t received responses yet from any of the 10 LGBTQ groups.
“Our purpose is to express our love for them as a Christian,” she wrote. “We don’t hate them. We also included in the package the movie Audacity. I feel it is a well done movie that shows what being a Christian is about. My hope is that they will watch it and maybe just understand our heart. We want to show them that it’s not about not serving them it’s about not being able to partake in an event.”
Basic Rights Oregon, an LGBTQ advocacy group, was not among the 10 groups slated to receive a cake.
Asked about the omission, Klein wrote: “We aren’t done yet :) we plan on sending more.”
Jeana Frazzini, co-director of the Oregon group, dismissed the bakers’ gesture. “You can’t one day send out a batch of cakes that say ‘We really do love you’ and the next day stand at a podium and advocate for discrimination against LGBTQ people,” she said. “This gesture is not about those cakes. It’s about standing for the Oregon values of fairness and inclusion and that’s what BRO stands for.”
“I’m not worried about what people think of me,” Klein wrote. “My motives are pure and only want to express love. Also I’m sure people will say we were just doing a publicity stunt but that is not what this is intended for.”
See also:
- Oregon baker under investigation for refusing homosexual couple
- Oregon bakery that denied service to same-sex couple closes
- State labor dept. says ‘Sweet Cakes’ discriminated against same-sex couple
DCG
