A Longview, Texas baker is in the news for refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Edie DeLorme, co-owner of Kern’s Bakery, will face no repercussions for denying services to the men; discriminating against LGBT people is legal in Texas.
According to the Longview News-Journal, Ben Valencia and Luis Marmolejo plan to marry on March 27 and went to the bakery seeking a quote for their wedding cake. But when the two showed Delorme a photo of the cake they wanted, she asked them who the cake was for.
“We just went in there to get a quote,” Valencia said. “Then she says, ‘Who’s this for?’ We looked at each other.”
DeLorme doesn’t deny refusing to serve the gay couple. In fact, she’s trying like mad to find an excuse for her bigoted behavior – and she’s hiding behind her religion to do it.
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“And when they said it was them, I said, ‘Sorry. We don’t provide cakes for homosexual marriages. It’s not against people or what they choose to be part of,” she told the News-Journal. “We don’t do alcohol-related cakes or risque (ones). We’ve turned down cake for, like, ‘Can you make a giant Skoal can?’ … It’s not that we single out one (reason).”
When questioned how the shop responds to other requests that would violate the Bible’s laws on marriage, DeLorme hedged. In the Bible, Jesus says that second marriages are adultery if the first marriage ended for any reason other than a cheating spouse. Asked about divorced people who want to remarry, she admits that they fulfill the requests.
“We’ve talked about that,” she said. “We would really have to do a lot of prying to find out. That’s something David and I would have to talk about, whether that would be something that we should participate in or not.”
Valencia, for his part, is trying to keep a positive attitude despite the baker’s bigotry.
“I wasn’t really mad,” he said. “I was more like saddened by it, because that is the first time anything like that has happened to me.”
Following the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, “I was excited for people to be able to love whom they want to, to be with for the rest of their lives,” Marmolejo told the newspaper. “I don’t see how making a cake for somebody is going to compromise your beliefs. I know that there aren’t laws that protect discrimination against people’s sexual orientation. I think some employers have that in their employee handbook, but I don’t think it’s a law.”
While Texas has already passed a law to allow clergy to refuse to participate in a same-sex wedding, even though that right is already federal law. The day the couple were turned away at the bakery, the legislature was discussing ways to expand that right to business owners who also want to discriminate against LGBT people.
H/t: LGBTQ Nation
Tony Chaplinski
there’s only one baker in all of texas. Yes it’s discrimination but go to another baker, if enough people do that, then the firsts baker is not a baker for long
Chris Duffy
Last year’s outrage. Have you noticed the Presidential front runners in the party half of America usually votes for? We have bigger worries.
Gary Hecklinger
It’s alive and strong here in Ohio
dean089
@Tony Chaplinski: I was just about to type the same thing. If someone doesn’t like gay people then let them tell me up front so that I can take my money elsewhere. Problem solved, easy-peasy.
kzen64
Someone go ask them if they would bake a wedding cake for devil worshippers.
joeyty
Publicity (advertising) stunt.
o.codone
Try that Muslim bakery across the street girls. See what they say. Let’s not have any more cake baking stories on here, that’s all we have to talk about? C’mon.
Brian JC Kneeland
Put a sign to that effect in the front door – then let anyone who disagrees feel free to shop somewhere else!
RIck Dean
LGBTQ people need federal protection.
Randy Judd
I believe and understand businesses need to abide by the law. At the same time, no one considers scheduling a Bar Mitzvah at a Mosque.
youarekiddingme
@Tony Chaplinski: @dean089: “NO COLORED PEOPLE SERVED”. Any problems with that gentlemen?
How about the guy who comes to eradicate the hive of killer bees from your yard (and he’s the only one for miles)? What about the air conditioner repairman in the middle of a 100+ degree heat wave in Texas? How about a veterinarian when your pet needs emergency surgery after being struck by a car?
Very pleasant thoughts, one and all…
Have a nice night pondering those possibilities.
He BGB
I still don’t know why gay people stay in a state like Texas that hates them. Wouldn’t it be fun to see a huge exodus of every gay person leaving hate states and going to a state where they are wanted. Then see how miserable all the conservative haters have to do their own hair, make their own dresses, and other stereotype gay jobs. Lol
jrh311
Test
jrh311
So I can post the word “test” but not an actual reply… Might want to wake up your IT guys, Queerty…
Paco
No business should have the right to deny services or goods to glbt persons, but I rather know upfront that they are bigots and spend my money elsewhere instead of risking their hatred making its way into my cake in the form of some disgusting bodily fluid or rat droppings.
captainburrito
@o.codone: Steven Crowder tried many muslim bakeries in Dearborn, Michigan. He made a video showing 3 refused him for a gay wedding cake. Then it turned out none of them had refused (1 did but it didn’t do custom cakes).
DCguy
Businesses that deny service to people with a religious excuse, if it is legal in their state, should also have to state that on a sign in their store, and in their advertising.
1EqualityUSA
DCguy, Such as, “No Irish need apply.”