I spotted the following follow-up article at The Oregonian:
Sweet Cakes Owners Direct Donors to New Fundraising Site As They Look to Restart GoFundMe Campaign
The two-year-old saga of the Oregon bakers who violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws took another turn Saturday as they looked to restart a fundraising campaign to help them pay a potential six-figure debt.
GoFundMe shut down a page set up for the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa late Friday, saying it violated the terms of service for the crowdfunding web site.
In a statement explaining the decision to close the account, GoFundMe said:
“After careful review by our team, we have found the “Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa” campaign to be in violation of our Terms and Conditions. The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal. While a different campaign was recently permitted for a pizzeria in Indiana, no laws were violated and the campaign remained live. However, the subjects of the “Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa” campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled.”
Closure of the account came on the day that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries issued a proposed order directing Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple who had come to their Gresham bakery in January 2013 to order a cake for their wedding.
The Kleins refused, citing their Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage. An administrative law judge ruled that the Kleins illegally discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation and on Friday, in a proposed order, recommended they pay damages to compensate the two women for their emotional suffering. Final authority to set the amount of damages lies with State Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian in issuing a final order.
Meanwhile, there are campaigns at GoFundMe for gang bangers, convicted felons (not indicted, convicted), of all types. For example, Jeremy Meeks. Google ‘Superstar Felon Jeremy Meeks Raises Enough Money to Hire Top Lawyer’.
Excerpt:
News broke today that the felon with the famous mugshot, Jeremy Meeks, has officially raised enough money to purchase a well respected lawyer to represent him in court and Meeks also will be stylin’ in court, raising enough money to rock a Tom Ford Suit to his trial. It’s been reported that Meeks is planning to beat his case and is working on starting a career, still no word as to what exactly he will be doing but we can only imagine it will be something dealing with modeling. The money that the thirsty women across the world raised thru GoFundMe has also provided Meeks with the opportunity to hire a more than capable agent to help get his career started.
How hypocritical can they get?
http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2014/03/conservative_christian_groups_1.html
"Applefield (Avakain's campaign manager) said Avakian isn't ready to talk specifics. But it sure sounds like Avakian will oppose the initiative inspired in part by the case involving the Gresham bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa.
The proposed ballot measure would allow individuals and businesses to refuse to provide goods or services for same-sex weddings or commitment ceremonies if they have religious objections.
"The labor commissioner will fight any attempt," said Applefield, "to roll back civil rights protections for workers or Oregonians in the marketplace."
But... "final authority"? Can that be? Is this thing immune from the court system?