Victoria Childress
Posted on 11/16/2011 2:07:21 PM PST by NYer
DES MOINES, Iowa, November 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Iowa baker who politely declined to provide a wedding cake for two lesbians based on her Christian values may face legal action from the couple.
Same-sex “marriage” was legalized in Iowa in 2009 by the state Supreme Court, and a 2007 state civil rights act disallows discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in matters of employment, education, housing, and public accommodation.
On Tuesday KCCI 8 Des Moines interviewed Trina Vodraska and Janelle Sievers, who said they were “shocked” when a local wedding cake business owner declined to provide the confection for their ceremony.
“It was degrading, you know, it was like she chastised us for wanting to do business with her,” said Vodraska.
Join a Facebook page to defend marriage here.
Victoria Childress, who runs the business from her home, said she told the couple that she was unable to give them a cake based on her Christian convictions. Both she and the couple say the conversation was cordial.
“I didn’t do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle. It is my right as a business owner. It is my right, and it’s not to discriminate against them,” said Childress.
“It’s not so much to do with them, as it’s to do with me, and my walk with God and what I will answer (to) him for,” she added.
“They thanked me for being honest with them. They were very pleasant. I did not belittle them, I did not speak rudely to them. There were no condescending remarks made, nothing.”
The news station reports that the couple is unsure whether to file a civil rights complaint with the state. However, the couple has since reportedly released a statement calling Childress a “bigot,” and the baker says she has been deluged with hate mail that she has stopped reading.
“It’s really hard to read things like that,” she told FOX News. “I’m a pretty quiet, soft-spoken person. But when I stand up for my convictions against things, I’m very strong when it comes to that.”
Christian businesses in America, including reception site owners and photographers declining to service homosexual couples, have routinely been targeted for lawsuits and harrassment in states that have legalized same-sex “marriage” or civil unions. Often the complaints spread through media, particularly gay blogs, where gay rights supporters are encouraged to keep up pressure on the offenders.
Ping!
Ummm, the sign - “We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To Anyone” ...
They couldn’t just go to another cake baker...
NO...
the whole point of “gay rights” is to punish Christians for their beliefs.
Good for her!
This is ridiculous. Are they saying they cannot find another baker? Why do they believe they should be able to force uniform beliefs on everyone?
You can’t refuse to do business with someone based on their race,
but, contrary to the latest push by the left, “gay” is NOT “the new black”.
Property rights.
Just like your private home, your private business should be allowed to refuse interaction with anyone on ANY criteria you so choose.
Let me repeat that. ANY criteria.
Should have taken their money then made the cake wrong. Nothing obvious, just leave out a few ingredients: vanilla, sugar, etc.
Yum.
she should sue them for intolerance.
i would.
and i would bake the judge a cake.
mmmmmm
cake.
t
The baker will lose. Her business is a public accomodation, and in Iowa she cannot discriminate based on gender preference.
“Lesbian couple mulls action against Christian wedding cake baker”
should read,
“Fascist lesbian couple mulls forcing Christian baker to make wedding cake for them via the Leftist-dominated court system”
I did not know that Iowa had legalized gayness.
While a business owner in Montana I had a similar experience when a local “artist” came into my Office Supply and Print Shop and wanted me to make posters of some of her art.
She brought it in for me to look at and when she unfolded it it was some of the most vile, graphich lesbian sexual perversion I could imagine.
I quickly folded it back over and told her I would not print it.
She became incensed and said if I was open to the public that I “had to print it,” or she would file suit against me.
I walked her to the front of my shop and showed her a small sign that I had hung over the front counter and over the door into the back which said, “I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, at anytime.”
I told her that was “my” right and she could sue until she was blue in the face but I still would not print it...I then told her that if she happened to win, which I believe she didn;t have a snow balls chance of doing in that town or county...that I would then shut down my business before I would print it and she would get no satisfaction from me...to the point of being fined and going to jail.
She took her business elsewhere and I never saw her in my shop again.
Damn that private sector. In the statist utopia all citizens will be forced to accept the unacceptable!
What’s the difference between a business and a “public accomodation”? And how do you balance with a person’s right to refuse to engage in any kind of transaction.
Last time I checked no one can force another against their will to do business with them. If that right is gone then we have a tyranny.
I want my cake and I want to eat it too!
If the Leftist Lesbians decide they want to sue then we should rally to this lady’s defense and help her out with getting legal representation.
Well, we knew this was coming.
IIRC, there was a similar story a while back at a cookie shop in Indianapolis, Indiana. Something about declining to do business with a local gay/lesbian group or something. IIRC, people came out in droves to support the bakery owners and business went through the roof for a time.
Can a Catholic priest face legal charges if he is unwilling to marry a same-sex couple when the Church forbids this practice?
or maybe a few “added ingredients”....?
But if a Gay owned place wants to restrict Straight people it’s OK.....Some people are more equal than others.
Don’t think so.
“Public accommodation” means each and every place, establishment, or facility of whatever kind, nature, or class that caters or offers services, facilities, or goods for a fee or charge to nonmembers of any organization or association utilizing the place, establishment, or facility, provided that any place, establishment, or facility that caters or offers services, facilities, or goods to the nonmembers gratuitously shall be deemed a public accommodation
“if the accommodation receives governmental support or subsidy.”
Iowa Code section 216.2(12).
We have a tyranny. And it is because people decided to use the law to force social change. Rather than educate people to be accepting of racial differences, we decided it would simply be easier to make it illegal to be a racist.
Which many supported, because being a racist is just so unsupportable. And if that meant forcing businesses to serve blacks, that was the right thing to do, and if they had to shut down that was one less racist in business.
Except now those same laws are being used to deny people the right to their own morality. Which they always were, except nobody would allow being “racist” to be a type of morality.
If we want to fight fire with fire, we could frequent gay print shops and force them to print up anti-gay literature.
But it might be better if the woman said “I’ll make your cake, but I can’t accept your money, so I will donate the full purchase price to (name some anti-gay organization)”.
Make it costly for the lesbians.
Tyranny rules!
Leave the baker alone. They are only doing this to get their 15 minutes of fame.
These women are nothing but bullies.
I thought they only ate pie.
Oh I would have baked them a cake...a little bit of this and a little bit of whatever that is in the garage, and whala....a beautiful cake.
And you need this when?
Oh, on the 15th?
I’m sorry, we will be on vacation that week and the week before.
Your argument assumes that she discriminated against them because they are women. All she has to say is that she discriminated against them because they are gay and adulterers. Last time I checked neither of those two are protected classes and as such are outside the laws re discrimination. Not that “they” are not trying everything legal and illegal to make them protected classes to extend the tyranny.
And to call as much attention to themselves and their deviant lifestyle as possible.
Those people love attention.
or carpets!
Muffins.
Victoria should counter sue them for nusnance, defamation of character, etc. She has the right to refuse anyone. She should have said that she didn’t have the time.
Why don’t Christians have the freedom to choose who they do business with?
I’m waiting for a case where an Islam deli that sells halal meat is sued for not making a nice pulled pork sandwich....
I just want to know, how do we order baked goods from this Lady???? I love well made cakes, loaded with butter. :)
uh..oh....butter??? Could this be part of the Administration’s plot to get rid of foods they deem unhealthy for us unwashed masses????? Hmmmmmm.......
Victoria: go to the grocery store... buy two boxes of betty crocker cake mix and premade frosting... bake the cake and apply the icing... charge them $500.
Having that sign is what spared you the agony of a frivolous lawsuit. Kudos and thanks for the post and ping.
As a wedding cake baker I have pondered this very situation. My decision, should I ever face it, will be to jack my price up way high, (I have no fixed prices so I can get away with it) and tell them that any one I bake a cake for I spend a lot of time praying for, that they will meet the maker of the universe and get their lives in order.
See my post 15 for another way to get past it.
Pretty sure this eliminates the argument of public accommodation since she is simply providing a commodity, not accommodation.
The people voted for one man, one woman. A judge decided to let homos marry. The left doesn’t put up with this, why do we? God bless this woman for doing what’s right.
Does this mean shirtless and shoeless people can sue a restaurant for refusing them service?
If a person refuses service due to a religious conviction, how can a legitimate court deny that persons freedom of religion?
ex- lax
So thoughtless of James Madison to leave "freedom of religion" out of the Bill of Rights.
The whole point of “gay rights” is to punish Christians for their beliefs.
And to Destroy the Church .
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