Aaron and Melissa Klein, bigoted owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, were found responsible for the harassment of a lesbian couple with whom they refused to do business. The court awarded $135,000 to the couple who suffered the harassment.
Faithwire, a Christian dog whistle online publication, in true hypocritical, bear-false-witness fashion, published a dishonest article with an attention-grabbing headline that made it seem as if a couple of poor, maligned Christians were having their right to free exercise of religion violated.
Let's be clear and truthful here: if you have a business that serves the public in the state of Oregon, you cannot discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation. The lesbian couple filed a complaint with the state, and the state found the business owners in violation--but the story does not end there.
After the Kleins violated Oregon law, they went on to harass the couple and their foster kids.
The Kleins published the names and the address of the couple who filed the complaint on their Facebook page. Followers of the page harassed the family and sent them death threats. They sent hateful messages.
Then, the media picked up the story, downplaying the harassment the family faced because of the doxxing the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa did on their Facebook page. The harassment became far worse. Messages came in by mail, phone, and email, because all of their contact information was available for anyone to see and use.
What's more, the state of Oregon's adoption agency said that if the Bowman-Cryers (the couple who faced this harassment) couldn't protect their kids, they could lose them. They were trying to adopt their foster kids, and they could have lost them because of what the Kleins did to them.
So...the business owners who refused service to a same-sex couple nearly cost that couple the custody of their kids, and they caused a flood of harassment and death threats that came from all over the country.
You can read the court's ruling here.
