Shine OnYet another Oregon baker refuses cake to same-sex union
As more and more LGBT couples are given the opportunity to legally wed, there are still a number of independent outposts that won’t let them eat cake – at least not from their bakeries.
Pam Regentin of Fleur Cakes is just the latest in a long list to draw attention for her refusal to make a wedding cake for a same-sex union. The Oregon baker explained to reporters that the “liberty to live by [her] principles” was reason enough to tell Erin Hanson and her fiancée Katie Pugh that she wouldn’t be contributing any baked goods to their impending nuptials.
The state of Oregon has recognized same-sex “domestic partnerships” since 2008, a status that confers nearly all the same rights as marriage without using the official term.
That doesn’t mean everyone is happy about it. Earlier this year, Gresham, Ore. baker Aaron Klein came under criticism for telling a woman he wouldn’t bake her a wedding cake as his bakery “didn’t do same-sex weddings.”
Regentin apparently holds the same policy.
After initially taking her order, Pugh tells KATU News that a single pronoun sent everything awry.
“I mentioned Erin in passing, and said a ‘she’ in passing too, in the email. A few days later she called back … and verified it was a same-sex wedding.”
Shortly after, Regentin sent a curt refusal note: “Not in my kitchen,” it read.
While everyone is certainly entitled to their personal feelings, the wedding cake question has become a sticking point in Oregon’s ongoing debate over civil rights, particularly refusal of service over sexual orientation.
It’s written in Oregon legislature that businesses must abide by “full and equal accommodations without any distinction on account of race, color, religion, sex, or sexual orientation,” as Salon notes, a mandate that renders Regentin’s actions legally murky.
In fact, Klein’s case is currently before the state’s Labor Bureau.
Also see: Saskatoon bridal shop refuses to let transgender bride try on wedding dresses
But where the authorities can take years to settle a single issue, the public has picked up the pace via protests and social media shaming.
This sort of publicity has the potential to hurt a small business.
This sort of publicity also has the potential to do the opposite, at least if we’re to believe the owners.
Jack Philips of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado told KDVR News last summer that since denying a cake to a same-sex union his business has been “booming” with customers who support his stance.
Perhaps they’d all be interested in packing up shop and moving to New Hampshire, where they may find their views better represented by law.
