Court: Colorado bakers must eat beliefs and make wedding cakes for gay couples
(Worthy News) – A Colorado appeals court Thursday ruled that a Denver baker can’t refuse service to a gay couple seeking a wedding cake because of his beliefs, the latest blow for religious liberty and a decision the ACLU said opens the door for a national fight.
“When every lesbian or gay person, every woman, every person of color, every person of every faith can walk into a store, a bank, a hospital, and know that they will get the same service as everyone else, we will have won. Until then, we continue to fight for the equal treatment we all deserve,” said the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT Project attorney Ria Mar.
The Colorado Court of Appeals decision against Masterpiece Cakeshop follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s endorsement of same sex marriage. [ Source ]
‘The Ruling Is Wrong’ Says Baker
“I think that the ruling is wrong … the constitution guarantees me the right to practice my faith, my religion, anywhere, anytime; there are no restrictions on it,” Phillips said. “It also gives me the right to free speech, anytime, anywhere. I don’t surrender those rights when I open my doors.”
Phillips now faces fines if he declines to make wedding cakes for gay couples. After the state ordered him to make wedding cakes for everyone he stopped making them for anyone. He says it has cost him 40 percent of his business.
“Ton of support, most people are in agreement with us that a business and an American citizen should have the right to what they want to make and what they don’t want to make,” Phillips said. [ Source ]