Well, it was fun while it lasted.
An Oregon bakery that was ordered to pay $135,000 after violating the state’s anti-discrimination law for refusing to provide a cake for a gay wedding just had its GoFundMe campaign yanked down.
Whomp, whomp.
Aaron and Melissa Klein, Christian owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, first made headlines back in September 2013 when they denied two lesbians a wedding cake, crowing that homosexuality was an “abomination unto the Lord.” In July 2014 they briefly made headlines again when they began marketing “ex-gay cakes” out of their home.
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After seeing the serious paydays enjoyed by an antigay pizzeria in Indiana and a homophobic florist in Washington state, the clever Kleins decided they wanted in on the action. They raised more than $109,000 towards their $135,000 fine before GoFundMe put a stop to the campaign.
In a statement, GoFundMe said that it yanked the page because the campaign violated the policy against raising money “in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts.”
“The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal,” the statement continued. “While a different campaign was recently permitted for a pizzeria in Indiana, no laws were violated and the campaign remained live. However, the subjects of the ‘Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa’ campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled.”
Naturally, the Kleins were not happy about this. They immediately took to Facebook to say this was the work of the devil:
We think this Facebook commenter said it best when she replied:
Better luck next time, Kleins.
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Prinny
Hahahahahahaha serves them right for the crap they did.
Michael Miller
enfilmigult
That Facebook response is beautiful.
dvlaries
The Indiana O’Connors (Memories Pizza) GoFundMe should not have been allowed until their bleat of ‘death threats’ had been substantiated by the police, and GoFundMe should make that a condition from now on.
Bromancer7
To be fair, they are not cracking down on hate campaigns. They shut down this one singular campaign not because of hate, but because they were found guilty of a crime and were seeking donations to pay their fine.
And even so they got to keep the $109K they already raised, which is still a pretty nice payout.
Stephen Meeks
They should not be able to keep the money donated prior to the take-down.
Stache99
I think about where that $ could’ve been used like helping the poor. Stuff that Jesus commanded his followers to do. Sick of these so called Christians and their hate.
Mario Garcia
DarkZephyr
Then wasn’t Barronelle Stutzman’s (the WA flower shop owner) also a violation? She got her’s to pay off court costs and fines as well. For exactly the same sort of crime.
Johnnie Apodaca
Donate it to those they tried hurting it to. The lgbt.
Luis H. Lopez
Evji108
Taste the Bitter Cakes.
Ra Hill
silveroracle
Wonder what ever happened to Love Thy Neighbour.
Captain Obvious
GoFundMe can’t actually take money away from anyone or they lose their middle-man authority and would become subject to criminal investigation for fraud.
Don’t expect them to “crack down on hate”… ever.
The real irony is that we can’t manage to raise positive money in favor of gays but anti-gay bigots raise tons of money against us all the time with zero effort.
Robert Young
Nanny nanny boo boo, stick you head in doo doo! Lol
Tim Parker
lcandela123
It should be noted that the reason the Klein’s fine was so large was not because they were in violation of the law. It was because they engaged in a harassment campaign against the lesbians, including posting their address on their facebook page, and encouraging other good Christians to give them a hard time.
You would hear a peep of these particular facts on right-wing Christian bullshit media.
These two are dangerous fanatics.