COLORADO: State Dismisses Complaint Against Bakery That Refused To Make “Homosexuality Is Detestable” Cake

Via the Washington Post:

Owners of a Denver bakery did not discriminate against a customer by refusing to fulfill an order requesting two cakes with ant-gay imagery and wording on them. That’s the message from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, which ruled that the Azucar Bakery was within its rights when employees refused to carry out an order from customer William Jack in March 2014, according to the Denver Post. Jack, a Christian who originally told reporters that he believes Azucar Bakery “discriminated” against him “based on my creed,” had asked the bakery to bake him two Bible-shaped cakes, ABC affiliate 7 News Denver reported.

The first cake would include disdainful words about gays and a second cake would include two men holding hands and an X on top of them. Jack asked that the cake be decorated with the biblical verses “God hates sin. Psalm 45:7″ and “Homosexuality is a detestable sin. Leviticus 18:2,” the decision by the department’s Civil Rights Division said, according to 7 News Denver. Marjorie Silva, the bakery’s owner, agreed to make the cakes but refused to put the ant-gay imagery on them, according to the AP. “It’s just horrible. It doesn’t matter if, you know, if you’re Catholic, or Jewish, or Christian, if I’m gay or not gay or whatever,” Silva, 40, told the Associated Press. “We should all be loving each other. I mean there’s no reason to discriminate.”

The agency ruled that the baker was justified in refusing to create a product with “derogatory language and imagery.”