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Icing on the Cake

Icing on the Cake

Sweet Cakes by Melissa

The Oregon bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple will be fined a whopping $135,000 penalty

The proprietors of Oregon-based bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, just got slammed with a $135,000 fine for refusing to make a cake for a lesbian couple's wedding, according to the Huffington Post.

Brad Avakian, the Oregon Labor Commissioner, was in accordance with the previous ruling that the bakery unlawfully discriminated against the couple in 2013 by not providing service based on their sexual orientation.

Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, argued that their refusal derived from their Christian faith, saying it was against their beliefs to take part in the act of same-sex marriage.

A judge had later ordered the owners to pay $75,000 in damages to a Rachel Bowman-Cryer and $60,000 to her wife, Laurel Bowman-Cryer.

Since being refused by the Klein, the Bowman-Cryers expressed great hardship in their experiences in a statement stating: "This has been a terrible ordeal for our entire family. We never imagined finding ourselves caught up in a fight for social justice...We were determined to ensure that this kind of blatant discrimination never happened to another couple, another family, another Oregonian," they continued, "Everyone deserves to be treated as an equal member of society."

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