Bakery Says No To Same-Sex Weddings Because 'Our Business Is God's Business'
In what’s become a familiar scenario, a California bakery is facing a backlash after reportedly refusing to prepare same-sex wedding cakes.
Two same-sex couples are speaking out against Bakersfield’s Tastries Bakery on social media, claiming that they were turned away by the company’s owner, Cathy Miller, when they told her they were seeking cakes for their upcoming weddings.
Ted G. Freitas said Miller suggested he and fiancé Adam Ramos visit a different area bakery during a recent cake tasting. “So the fiancé and I are out cake tasting in Bakersfield for our big day,” Freitas wrote Aug. 26, according to The Bakersfield Californian. “And the lady helping us — I have another name for her — asks, ‘So this is for the bride and groom?’ ‘Uh, no it says Adam and Ted on your form!’ When we let her know, that it’s for us, she quickly, without hesitation, replies, ‘Well I’m going to transfer your order to Stephanie at Gimme Some Sugar Cakes.’”
Meanwhile, KGET-17 cited a second Facebook post by Eileen Del Rio, who also said that she and her fiancée were similarly denied service at Tastries Aug. 26. “So we go to this bakery a week ago to sign up for tasting and choose our wedding cake. The owner met with us today to set up the process,” Del Rio wrote. She went on to note the owner “refused to make our wedding cake and set up our order. She wanted all our information to send to another bakery so they could make it.”
In an interview with 23 ABC News, Miller didn’t deny either couple’s claims, and stated that her Christian faith “will not allow me to participate in things that I feel are wrong.”
“Our business is God’s business. We work for him,” she said. “Participating in a celebration of a same-sex marriage goes against my conscience.”
She then added, “I shouldn’t be picked on because of my beliefs.”
Bakeries, florists and other wedding-related businesses have become an unlikely battleground for LGBTQ rights in recent years. Next month, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshop, whose owner cited his Christian beliefs in his decision to turn away a same-sex couple who sought a cake for their wedding in 2012.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
