Some day we may look back on this moment in the history of civil rights for gays and think it odd that a chapter was fought over cakes.
Yet, that is where we are in Colorado and the curious battleground does not diminish the importance of the core issues.
In the , a man who wanted a cake with a strong anti-gay message filed a complaint with the against a Denver baker who refused to inscribe the words.
Marjorie Silva, owner of Azucar Bakery, told the customer she’d make the Bible-shaped cake as he wanted, but that he’d have to write the words himself. She offered to sell him the materials to do that.
And therein lies a key difference between this incident and a prior one in which Lakewood baker Jack Phillips was found to have engaged in discrimination for refusing to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins.
Rejecting customers because of who they are — gay men celebrating marriage — is different from agreeing to serve a customer but declining to participate in writing offensive words.
Yes, it’s a fine grain difference, but a significant one. At issue, of course, is the balancing of civil rights for gay people, free speech protections and religious freedom.
No doubt, some will say that Phillips, the Lakewood baker, was exercising his right to religious expression by refusing to serve the gay men. That assumes religious freedom includes the right of a commercial establishment to pick and choose the customers it serves, which is not the case.
It would be a different situation if the conflict had been over whether the baker should decorate the cake with a message the gay couple requested that he found morally objectionable.
But if you make wedding cakes for sale to the public, that public should include gay customers. If you make cakes, you also should make them for gay-haters — but you shouldn’t have to violate your own free speech rights by becoming their mouthpiece.
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