GAY TRUTH

Jack Phillips barely had time to catch his breath. Less than a month after the Supreme Court overturned his conviction for violating the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the director of said Commission informed him that he had yet again violated Colorado law in an act of discrimination.   The Supreme Court case centered on Phillips’s refusal in 2012 to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding. This latest case centers on Phillips’s refusal in 2017 to bake a custom cake to celebrate a sex transition.   Jack Phillips first came to national attention in August 2012 when an intolerant activist homosexual couple filed a complaint against him with the Colorado Civil Rights Division. The complaint claimed that Phillips had violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by refusing to design and bake a custom cake to celebrate the couple's planned wedding in another state.  Over the course of nearly four years, ...

A BAKERY run by a Christian family in Northern Ireland on Wednesday won a landmark case in Britain’s highest court over its refusal to make a cake decorated with the words “Support Gay Marriage”. The Supreme Court upheld the owners’ appeal against a May decision that found them guilty of discriminating against gay rights activist Gareth Lee. The bakery called the ruling a momentous day for religious freedom in Britain while Lee condemned it as a profound blow for civil rights. “I paid my money, my money was taken and then a few days later it was refused. That made me feel like a second-class citizen. I feel like they hate me.” he told reporters after listening to the verdict. “I’m concerned not just for the implications for myself and other gay people, but for every single one of us because we get easily offended over anyone who disagrees. Like, who do poeple think they are? Anybody who objects to our love should be jailed. ” The case pitted Northern Ireland’s strong Protestant and ...

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon decide the next step in another high-profile religious liberty case, days after affirming that Colorado discriminated against a Christian small business owner. On Monday, the court ruled 7-2 that Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips was denied a fair hearing by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which the court found to have displayed anti-religious animus. Many are hailing the decision for its vindication of religious liberty in Phillips’ case, and others fear it may allow other regulators to coerce participation in same-sex “marriages,” as long as they don’t make hostile public statements while doing so. One of the first tests of what the ruling means for future cases will most likely be Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued florist Barronelle Stutzman for refusing to provide flowers for a customer’s same-sex ceremony. Stutzman had previously served the customer’s every other r...

The Supreme Court today pushed back against the rising tide of anti-religious sentiments in America, ruling in favour of Colorado baker Jack Phillips. Baker Jack Phillips Wins In a 7-2 decision, the court specifically rebuked the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which had ruled against Phillips when he refused to design a wedding cake for a same-sex “marriage.” As expressed in the majority opinion of Anthony Kennedy, “The Commission’s hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion.” Although the court did not issue a ruling on the wider questions regarding the conflict between religious freedoms and LGBT rights, the ruling was a major step in the right direction. May the pushback against LGBT extremism (and anti-Christian animus) continue! Ironically, the case was argued by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which the SPLC brazenly labelled a hate group because of its conservative Christian v...

When our children were watching Sesame Street one of the regular clips featured the song “ one of these things is not like the others “, training children to look carefully and make distinctions where things are different. In a case involving Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal has shown that it is not very good at making distinctions between things that are different. The case is Lee v McArthur, McArthur & Ashers Baking Co Ltd [2016] NICA (24 October 2016). (Thanks to the always helpful Law and Religion UK blog for the link to the official report. There is an “official summary” available here which is a bit shorter.) In the decision the Court of Appeal equates the decision of Christian bakers not to supply a cake, the sole purpose of which was to bear a message which they disagreed with on religious grounds, with a decision of a business to discriminate against persons on the grounds of their sexual orientation. In my view they have ...

A brief note about two decisions illustrating radically different approaches to religious freedom developing in the context of laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, both from the United States . One case, Re Klein dba Sweetcakes by Melissa and anor ( Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, State of Oregon ; Case Nos 44-14, 45-14; 21 April 2015) is in the “genre” of the wedding industry cases I have previously commented on. The owners of a small-town cake shop were asked to make a wedding cake . When they discovered that this was for a same sex “commitment ceremony” (at the time same sex marriage was not legal in Oregon), they declined on the grounds of their Christian beliefs. Soon word got around, they were besieged by protests and in fact had to shut down their shopfront business. In this decision the Commissioner has ruled, on the basis of a previous finding of liability for sexual orientation discrimination, that they should pay $135,000 in damages...

There have been a number of “wedding industry” religious freedom cases arising in the United States and the UK over the last few years. On 28 December 2017 the Oregon Court of Appeals , in  Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries  ( CA Or;  Dec 28, 2017,  — P.3d —-,  2017 WL 6613356; 289 Or App 507 (2017) )  upheld a $135,000 fine levied on the Kleins, wedding cake makers, for declining to make a cake for the wedding of Rachel and Laurel Bowmen-Cryer. The case is another example of religious freedom (and, arguably, freedom of speech) being over-ridden in the name of “dignitary harm” to same-sex couples. It is a good example of the issues being presented to the current Ruddock Inquiry into Religious Freedom being conducted in Australia at the moment. Facts Melissa and Aaron Klein were the owners of a bakery doing business as Sweetcakes by Melissa . They regularly made wedding cakes. Melissa had in fact supplied a wedding cak...