Bakery fined $135K, shut down, and hounded for refusing to bake cake for gay event

Originally published in All Christian News.Com

Apart from being forced to close their Oregon-based bakery, Sweetcakess by Melissa, after consistent threats and boycotts by supporters of gay marriage, Aaron and Melissa Klein were fined $135,000 for refusing to participate in a lesbian commitment ceremony.

As if that wasn’t enough, a GoFundMe campaign that started to help the Kleins was shut down after raising $109,000 due to pressure from supporters of LGBT rights, who interestingly enough claim they want people to be more tolerant of their lifestyle.

In the latest blow against the former bakery owners brought on by accusations from Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, the lesbian couple they refused to bake a cake for to help with their upcoming same-gender ceremony, the Kleins have been ordered to keep quiet.

Now the Kleins have been told to shut up about how the dispute has affected their lives and business by Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. Not only did he uphold a $135,000 fine levied against the Kleins for the alleged suffering the lesbian couple endured, but he ordered them to “cease and desist” from making any further public comments about their religious convictions regarding the case.

The fine against the Kleins was reportedly reached by tallying up the alleged emotional damages incurred by the lesbian couple, who accused the Christian bakers of “mental rape.”

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The list of over 178 items included such things as a “loss of appetite” and “impaired digestion” by the gay couple, which remarkably led to their gaining weight, according to Michael Brown in a Charisma News op-ed. The president of FIRE School of Ministry continued, “If anyone here was ‘raped,’ it was the Kleins by the government, not this couple by the Kleins.”

The list of alleged suffering brought about by the Kleins’ refusal to bake a cake includes acute loss of confidence, degradation, demeanment, depression, disappointment, disbelief, discomfort, distrust of men, doubt and excessive sleep, according to Illinois Family.org.

The supposed symptoms continues: exhaustion, mentally-raped feelings, dirty and shameful feelings, felling stupid, less talkative, loss of appetite, nervous appetite, impaired digestion, weight gain, moodiness, pale and sick at home after work, shocked, stunned, surprise, uncertainty and worry.

Brown, the author of “Outlasting the Gay Revolution: Where Homosexual Activism Is Really Going and How to Turn the Tide,” continues that the lesbian couple also claims that their disappointment led to migraine headaches and nightmares. It also apparently affected one of them so much that she didn’t want her lover to touch her, he adds.

The statement issued by Avakian reads, in part, “The Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries hereby orders Aaron and Melissa Klein to cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying, or causing to be published … any communication to the effect that any of the accommodations … will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination be made against, any person on account of their s*xual orientation.”

“The proper response of the court and Mr. Avakian should have been, ‘Are you kidding me? All this because a Christian couple declined your business on religious grounds at a time when same-s*x ‘marriage’ wasn’t even legal here?’” writes Brown. “I don’t doubt that the women felt hurt, but they are either completely exaggerating what they experienced or they have quite a few other, deep emotional problems that need to be addressed that are no fault of the Kleins.”

Stating that if the lesbian couple deserved to receive $135,000, then the Kleins deserve at least $10 trillion, Brown suggests that perhaps the Christian bakers might counter-sue the government of Oregon. He adds that if anyone deserves compensation, they do for the loss of their business and the emotional damages they have incurred from consistent harassment and threats from the LGBT community.

Defending his judgment against the Kleins, Avakian stated “This case is not about a wedding cake of a marriage. It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their s*xual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”

However, Brown points out that the Kleins did not refuse to serve homos*xuals or lesbians, but simply refused to participate in what would amount to a gay wedding, which would go against their religious convictions.

“But why play by the rules when it’s open season on Christians and their faith?” Brown added.

However, the Kleins are adamant they will not be forced to back down by any cease and desist order. In an interview following the verdict, Aaron Klein said, “He wants to silence anyone who opposes his point of view. Unfortunately, he’s doing this with the wrong Christian, because I fight back.”

“For years, we’ve heard same-s*x marriage will not affect anybody,” Aaron said, delivering a message to Americans and business leaders about why he believes his case is monumentally important, according to The Blaze. “I’m here firsthand to tell everyone in America that it has already impacted people. Christians, get ready to take a stand. Get ready for civil disobedience.”

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Far from immediately making out a check to the Cryer-Bowmans for $135,000 as the order demands, Klein said he and his wife will request a stay to delay payment until subsequent appeals can be heard.

“It has the potential to financially ruin our family … [Avakian] knew that full well going into this,” Klein told The Blaze. “He did not seek business assets, he sought personal property.”