The never-ending story involving two antigay bakers who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple has finally come to an end.
Aaron and Melissa Klein, a husband-wife duo who own the Portland-based bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa, just forked over $136,000 after a two-year court battle over a gay wedding cake.
Related: Oregon Bakery That Refused To Serve Gay Wedding Couple Closes Shop
It all started in 2013 when the Kleins were sued for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple’s wedding, saying same-sex marriage was against their religious beliefs. The story made national headlines and the backlash forced the Klein’s to close their store and resort to selling “ex-gay” cakes out of their home to make ends meet.
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When the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries stepped in and ordered the couple to pay $136,000 for violating the state’s anti-discrimination laws, the Kleins did what every antigay bigot does these days: They launched a GoFundMe page.
Related: Sorry, Christians, GoFundMe Is Cracking Down On Your Hate Campaigns
Their page raised nearly $110,000 before being yanked down for violating GoFundMe’s policy against raising money “in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts.”
Finally, after losing their appeal and their GoFundMe campaign, the Kleins decided to fork over the money. Yesterday, they paid the $136,000. Then they updated their website to include the following passage from the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Related: Homophobic Bakers In Oregon Are Back, Now Serving “Ex-Gay” Cakes Out Of Their Home
Luis H. Lopez
Good they got money from go fund me so it really pays to be a bigot when your a bunch of loser low lives .
Terry Simmons
I guess ignorance is bliss.
Sidney DaviesWinter
Correction, their business partner paid the bill.
Will Glitzern
Religious people will be mad because they wanted the $$$
James
I have actually talked by telephone and e-mail to both these people. One would be hard pressed to find two more self-centered, arrogant, self-righteous, boring people. The woman kept telling me, god knows who I am and he loves me. The guy just screamed, you people are sick. Idiots.
scotshot
They forgot to add that Aaron dragged his feet on paying the fine and racked up over $7000. in interest.
There are other sources of crowd funding. Over $517,000. was raised which allowed them to easily pay the fine leaving them with a very tidy profit – even after taxes.
Fuck them.
MacAdvisor
How, exactly, is what this couple did a “formal charge… of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts.” What they did, while rude and a violation of civil law, what not a crime, let alone a heinous crime. While it was “hateful,” the “hateful” must be an element of the crime, not a stand-alone charge. I think GoFundMe owes them the money. As the company is based in San Diego, California, it is also covered by the Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980), which forbids private companies from discriminating by view point. The case permits private individuals to protest inside a private shopping mall (the Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of American would have enjoyed greater protection here in California).
I don’t like these people, but others are free to give them money to help them out and I don’t like companies discriminating against bigots any more than I like them discriminating against me.
scotshot
@o.codone: That was actually done. A conservative visited bakeries in Detroit and expected for the Muslim owners to refuse the request. The vast majority had no problem,but a couple did refuse – or it was edited to appear as if they did. I guess Muslims are more xtian than xtians in their actions. /s
MacAdvisor
@scotshot:
Scotshot, as the money was a gift, I don’t believe it is subject to taxation. While there is a lifetime limit how much a *giver* may give a recipient without tax consequences, there isn’t a limit for the recipient. Gifts are generally not taxable to the recipient. The only circumstances I know in which a gift will be taxed is if it exceeds the current $14,000 annual limit and the giver doesn’t pay the tax on it. I doubt many of the gifts where larger than $14,000.
o.codone
And the nation hates gay bullies for doing exactly this. Next time the girls should try one of those nice Muslim bakeries in Dearborn MI or one in Patterson NJ and find out what Islam thinks about gay bullies.
Bad Ass Biker
@James: James, I also emailed them and I guess the woman must have been online at the time as I got the same self righteous bullshit in several emails.
scotshot
@MacAdvisor: Thanks, I was unsure but didn’t want to take the time to Google.
Captain Obvious
@Luis H. Lopez: Nah they got shut down so they got nothing from the page. You only get the money if it goes through before being shut down. All they did was lose money and make themselves out to be martyrs in their own minds.
1EqualityUSA
The photo is so gross. My gaydar pings huge on the guy. The face of hate.
rickhfx
Christians what a sad bunch of nuts.
o.codone
@scotshot: Yup. You made all of that up. Nothing you said is true. Better luck next time.
scotshot
@o.codone:
There’s this thing called G O O G L E that’s very helpful to research a subject, it can save a lot of embarrassment and prevent you from appearing to be an ignorant fool as you have in your statement above.
o.codone
@scotshot: I will strongly advise you to look this up yourself. There were refusals by muslims and there were refusals from gay bakeries to make traditional marriage cakes. Yet none of them were fined. You shoot you mouth off about things you THINK happened, but honey, the real world is different from what goes on in your head.
You sound more and more like Giancarla85, a loud mouth queen who doesn’t give a shit about facts. Look it up before you start lecturing, you “ignorant fool”.