Christian bakers in Oregon paid over $135,000 in state-ordered fines to a lesbian couple for not baking a cake for their wedding ceremony. The former owners of the bakery 'Sweet Cakes by Melissa' were holding back the damages required to be paid for the last six months, with the intent of challenging it in state court of appeal this year.
Aaron and Melissa Klein, the former owners of 'Sweet Cakes,' paid a check of $136,927.07 to Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries which included the damages and interests accumulated during the past several months.
Kleins' attorney Tyler Smith said that clients decided to make the payment instead of keeping it until the case is heard in the court, to avoid additional charges levied against the amount.
They had already emptied their bank accounts by paying $7,000 in December. Smith told the Oregon Live that the bureau "was attempting to charge interest rates of 9 percent, equating to $35 a day, and seeking to garnish any assets of the Kleins so they couldn't earn interest on the money that had been donated to them."
Aaron Klein had taken up a job as a garbage collector after their bakery was closed, but the couple had afterwards received about $515,000 in fundraising campaign online.
"We had three accounts," Melissa was quoted as saying by Fox News. "I have one account that's labeled, 'God's money' - our tithing. They just took it."
"The least expensive option to stay in compliance with the law was to pay the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries funds that will be kept in a separate account until they prevail in their court appeal," Smith said.
Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian levied a fine on the Kleins in July 2014 for causing emotional suffering to Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer, after receiving a complaint by the couple about the cake in February 2013.
The Kleins had turned away Rachel Bowman-Cryer, who visited the shop with her mother in 2013, because they did not want to participate in same-sex wedding by baking a cake for them. Aaron and his wife held firm in their decision, which they say is in accordance with their Christian faith, even when they were charged with violation of anti-discrimination law.
Bowman-Cryer told the Huffington Post: "I was just humiliated that this happened in front of my mom, whom I spent all these years trying to convince that we deserved equal accommodation, and we deserve rights, and we deserve to be able to get married. I was crying and she was trying to console me and say, 'Don't worry, we will find somebody that will make you a beautiful cake.'"
Apart from imposing the fine, the labor bureau ordered the Kleins to not publicly speak about the incident. They were asked to "cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying, or causing to be published, circulated, issued or displayed, any communication, notice, advertisement or sign of any kind to the effect that any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges of a place of public accommodation will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination will be made against, any person on account of sexual orientation."
The Christian couple were sided with by many conservative leaders including Rev. Franklin Graham, who expressed his support for them in his Facebook post.
"This is an outright attack on their ?#"Žfreedomofspeech.. Pray for them as they appeal the ruling and for other Christians experiencing discrimination because of their faith right here in 'the land of the free,'" he wrote.
The Kleins will appeal the damages on grounds of religious freedom.
"Aaron and Melissa will continue to work to ensure that every American has the First Amendment right to express their faith-based beliefs, and to conduct their daily affairs according to their conscience," their attorney Smith said.
