[exschke]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1092789.html

First Posted: 11/14/11 12:48 PM ET Updated: 11/15/11 08:40 AM ET

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Gay Marriage , Same-Sex Marriage , Iowa Lesbian Couple , Iowa Same-Sex Marriage , Janelle Sievers , Trina Vodraska , Victoria Childress , Gay Weddings , Iowa , Wedding Cakes , Gay Voices News


An Iowa lesbian couple might have hoped to find a wedding cake that was both delicate and sweet, but they say their experience with a Des Moines-based baker left behind a sour taste.
As KCCI-TV is reporting, the owner of Victoria's Cake Cottage refused to bake a cake for Trina Vodraska and Janelle Sievers, who are planning a June wedding, because she is Christian.
Victoria Childress, who runs her bakery from home, says it's her right as a business owner to turn away customers."I said, 'I'll tell you I'm a Christian, and I do have convictions.' And I said, 'I'm sorry to tell you, but I'm not going to be able to do your cake," Childress, who met the couple during a taste-testing appointment, said. "I didn't do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle. It is my right, and it's not to discriminate against them. It's not so much to do with them, it's to do with me and my walk with God and what I will answer [to] Him for."
Though Childress said no condescending remarks were made, the couple says they were nonetheless left feeling humiliated by the experience. "It was degrading," Vodraska said. It was like she chastised us for wanting to do business with her."
Other area bakers, several of them who identified themselves as Christian, have since come to the couple's defense. "It is a business. It's about the people. It's about making the people happy too," Amanda Laurich, owner of Three Chicks Bakery, told KCCI.com.
Watch the news report, including an interview with Childress, here.
View other recent cases of LGBT customers being denied services below:


Personal note: I'm glad to see people standing up to this. It's a shame tho, that it's made it to the MSM. That bakery is in for a world of hurt....

[tpJKhY8Z]

Wasn't it in Iowa Adolf Hitler was denied a birthday cake, and subsequently was taken away from his parents?

[Uhmavano]

I don't see what the problem is for that couple. If that baker didn't want to do the cake then find a baker who will... it''s not rocket surgery.

[freeringsf]

I don't see what the problem is for that couple. If that baker didn't want to do the cake then find a baker who will... it''s not rocket surgery.

No! Christian Bakers must be forced to make allowances for non-reproductive entities... or face extinction...

[Unjucky]

I don't see what the problem is for that couple. If that baker didn't want to do the cake then find a baker who will... it''s not rocket surgery.

True, it is politics!

[8jIDXQ80]

As a business owner you have a right to tell potential as well as current customers to fvck off. The best part is when they have someone else call back and ask for the owner.... "is this the way you treat all your customers?" "No mam/sir, just the likes of you" click.

[wp6Eg2Fm]

Does the Bible have anything to say about lesbians? I guess its the marriage thing more than about lesbians.

The thing about gay people is that the world is against them. That's basically their attitude to everything. I'm not explaining it very well but it's a mind set they have. Like carrying a big chip on their shoulder all the time.

My advice. Build a bridge and get over it.

[ClaudeMarkus]

Two women... and they can't bake their own cake.

[aLZ9zKsO]

Haha, Santa!

[Donlupedron]

As a business owner you have a right to tell potential as well as current customers to fvck off. The best part is when they have someone else call back and ask for the owner.... "is this the way you treat all your customers?" "No mam/sir, just the likes of you" click.

If you own a movie theater, grocery store, hotel, house rental etc., they'll come back with an armed gang and likely end up taking your business. In the US (as well as everywhere else in the West) you haven't had freedom of association/contract for some time now.

Two women... and they can't bake their own cake.

They just want to have it and eat it, too.

[invasuant]

"...because it's not about you respecting my privacy [in leading an alternative lifestyle]; it's about me imposing my values on you to legitimize them. I have civil rights; but you do not because do not affirm me and my values. Also, I am offended by the archaic and bigoted term 'lesbian;' In the future, you will refer to me by the more respectful name 'rugbitatrix.'"

[TXmjLW9b]

She should probably put information on her website/in her advertising advising about her companies limitations on service. That way everyone knows ahead of time what work can and cannot be done and no one gets their time wasted.

Another, more diplomatic way of dealing with it, would have been for her to simply say that she couldn't accommodate their time schedule and then referred them to another bakery.
ie no fuss no muss

Great advice. The Web posting you suggest is an open invitation to a civil rights lawsuit. The second suggestion advocates deception over straight forward honesty. God forbid someone should be allowed to express his or her opinion. Better he conjures up some tortured excuse.

FAIL

[Enfotanab]

If they didn't want to serve them just triple the going price, if they take them up have another business make it and pocket the difference.

[Niobaralegra]

If they didn't want to serve them just triple the going price, if they take them up have another business make it and pocket the difference.

Now that's a creative solution!

[amelveEnromma]

Another, more diplomatic way of dealing with it...

Display this in their front window to avoid the bagel-buying customers.

subtle huh

[olivelappers]

She coulda made a big statement by making the cake and then decorating it with God smiting Gomorrah or something along those lines.

[avarberickibe]

She coulda made a big statement by making the cake and then decorating it with God smiting Gomorrah or something along those lines.

Jeez SAB! Do you know how hard it is to draw a mushroom cloud with icing?!?!?

[iOqedeyH]

She coulda made a big statement by making the cake and then decorating it with God smiting Gomorrah or something along those lines.

Funny!

[popsicesHoupe]

Jeez SAB! Do you know how hard it is to draw a mushroom cloud with icing?!?!?

It has been done!

[Butiqueso]

I met two women who would not bake a cake.
They said they lived in a failed Lesbian State.
Yet years later were surprised that with all that 'lovin',
Not the one nor the other ever had a pie in the oven.