Hero baker comes to the rescue after lesbian couple denied wedding cake by homophobe
Baker comes to the rescue after lesbian couple denied wedding cake by homophobe (AmberLaneRoberts/Getty Images)
A baker in New York has come to the rescue after a lesbian couple was denied a wedding cake by a homophobic vendor.
Rebecca Riley, the owner of Peace, Love, Cupcakes in Syracuse, has offered Pennsylvania lesbian couple Desirie White and Jess Dowd a free wedding cake after the pair made a viral Facebook post explaining their original bakery had backed out for religious reasons – just a month before tying the knot.
White explained she was particularly upset as a religious person herself, saying: “I know that MY GOD would not condemn or deny me because of who I am and who I love.”
Riley explained the baker’s refusal to make the LGBTQ+ wedding cake made her “furious”, and as she was “only two hours and 52 minutes away”, she would provide the couple’s vegan lemon cake for free.
White told Syracuse.com: “I immediately started crying, like something hit me in the gut.
“Some people in my family wouldn’t go this far for us.”
White added in a follow-up Facebook post: “Rebecca… extended her hand without a second thought to offer her services in making us a beautiful cake at no cost with the support of her followers.
“It’s so unreal that we don’t know how to begin to wrap our head around this and voice our gratitude.
“One person turned their back on us and a whole community stepped up to stand beside us and the feeling I get from that is just so overwhelming… from the bottom of our gay hearts, thank you.”
The refusal to bake wedding cakes for LGBTQ+ couples is unfortunately nothing new, with Colorado baker Jack Phillips gaining national recognition when he refused to serve two men for their upcoming wedding.
He cited “religious objections” as a reason to refuse the couple service, and claimed Jesus Christ would actually discriminate against gay people.
The couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission (CCRC), which ruled Phillips should not have refused service. The case, however, ended up at the US Supreme Court, in a legal battle which Phillips won.
While he was in the middle of his Supreme Court battle, Phillips went on to file a separate lawsuit against the CCRC after it ruled he had discriminated against a trans customer, Autumn Scardina, who wanted a cake for the first anniversary of her gender transition.
He was handed a second victory when the CCRC was forced to drop its case.
