Tag Archives: Oregon

Via Oregon Live: Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian on Thursday ordered the owners of a former Gresham bakery to pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple for refusing to make them a wedding cake. Avakian’s ruling upheld a preliminary finding earlier this year that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa had discriminated against the women on the basis …

When high school junior Makaila Ragan noticed two men waving anti-gay signs outside her mother’s Oregon workplace, she decided to do something about it. “I was so irritated because I see them all around town and all they ever do is make people feel like crap about themselves,” said Ragan, a junior at Tillamook High School. The men were standing …

Via press release from the National Center for Lesbian Rights: Today, the Oregon State Senate passed HB 2307, a bill that will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy. The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the State House on March 17 and is now heading to the desk of Governor …

Last week GoFundMe yanked the fundraising page for Oregon’s Sweet Cakes bakery after complaints that the money beg was in violation of their posted ban on “campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual acts.” The cancellation spawned immediately outrage across Teabagistan and many calls for a boycott of GoFundMe. Today the crowdfunding site …

Yesterday the Heritage Foundation questioned demonstrators outside the Supreme Court, asking their opinion about GoFundMe’s cancellation of the fundraising page of the Oregon bakers. They write: Why does GoFundMe, a crowdsourcing website that raises money for a variety of personal causes and life events, get to choose who they do business with, but the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa …

Following last week’s recommended $135K fine by an Oregon administrative agency, the Heritage Foundation has rushed out the below sob story of the Oregon bakers. At the end of the clip you’ll see man-on-the-street interviews which include some who support the fine.

Todd Starnes writes at Fox News: Within hours of the ruling, the Family Research Council facilitated the establishment of a GoFundMe account to help the Kleins raise the money the need. In less than eight hours, more than $100,000 was raised. However, late Friday GoFundMe pulled the plug — sending this message to would-be donors: “After careful review by our …

According the Family Research Council, late last night GoFundMe deleted the money beg for the Oregon bakers who yesterday were hit with a recommended $135K fine for refusing to serve a lesbian couple. Top conservative figures including Erick Erickson, Rick Santorum, and Tony Perkins had promoted the money beg to their followers. Apparently GoFundMe’s terms of service do not allow …

Via Oregon Live: The lesbian couple turned away by a Gresham bakery that refused to make them a wedding cake for religious reasons should receive $135,000 in damages for their emotional suffering, a state hearings officer says. Rachel Bowman-Cryer should collect $75,000 and her wife, Laurel Bowman-Cryer, $60,000 from the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, an administrative law judge …

Via Oregon Live: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear one last legal attempt by the National Organization for Marriage to overturn a federal judge’s ruling allowing gays and lesbians to marry in Oregon. The high court’s action came nearly a year after U.S. District Judge Michael McShane of Eugene on May 19, 2014, struck down Oregon’s voter-approved …

Via the Associated Press: The Oregon House has voted to outlaw a therapy that purports to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of young people. The bill would make it illegal for social workers or licensed mental health professionals such as psychologists or psychiatrists to practice what’s called conversion therapy on children younger than 18. Laws banning the therapy …

“When Kate Brown takes over as Governor of Oregon, voters may not know anything about her record, but they will certainly know about her love life. The leading stories about the state’s new leader have nothing to do with Brown’s legislative accomplishments and everything to do with her other conquests. As a self-professed bisexual, most of the headlines surrounding Brown’s …

Via Bloomberg: Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber’s almost four-decade political career fell apart Friday, as he heeded calls from fellow Democrats to resign after a scandal involving his fiancee’s use of his office to generate business for her energy-consulting firm. Kitzhaber, a 67-year-old re-elected to a fourth term in November, announced his departure in a news release. Secretary of State Kate …

At the 11:00 mark. If you can’t get the MSNBC clip to play there’s a low-rez version on YouTube. (Tipped by JMG reader Robbie)

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries today called out Todd Starnes for lying in yesterday’s Fox News column about the possible fines faced by that anti-gay bakery. Via Raw Story: Starnes incorrectly reported that bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein could face $200,000 in fines and damages – which an official with the BOLI flatly denied in a statement …

“Make them bake cake! That’s the verdict of an administrative judge in the case of Oregon bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein. The couple, who became the brave face of America’s religious liberty clash, were informed yesterday by the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries that in the battle over marriage, their First Amendment rights no longer counted. Unfortunately for the …

“Aaron and Melissa Klein refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, and now they must pay for their crime. The question now is how much — if anything — the Kleins will be forced to pay. Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian will decide, and history proves he’s no friend of the Christian bakers. In 2013, Avakian told The …

Via the Oregonian: The long-running legal battle sparked by a Gresham bakery’s refusal to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple will proceed toward a March hearing after a failed effort to have the case thrown out. An administrative law judge has rejected an attempt by lawyers representing the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa to dismiss the case …

Yesterday HRC co-founder Terry Bean pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on charges that he had sex with a 15 year-old boy that Bean and his then-partner met on the hook-up site Grindr. Bean, 66, was arraigned Wednesday morning in Eugene. Both he and his ex-boyfriend, 25-year-old Kiah Lawson, were arrested last month and charged with two counts of third-degree …

The Human Rights Campaign yesterday issued a brief statement noting that co-founder and board of directors member Terry Bean has taken a leave of absence. Last week Bean was arrested and charged with the sexual abuse of a 15 year-old boy that he and his then-partner met on Grindr in 2013. From HRC vice president Fred Sainz: “Terry Bean has …