You Might Like
Anti-gay-marriage Sweet Cakes bakers raise over US$350,000
Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of now-defunct Sweet Cakes by Melissa have raised a record-breaking US$352,500 in two months via crowdfunding website Continue to Give.
This is the second fundraising effort created in support of the couple since an Oregon judge ruled in April that they must pay Rachel Bowman-Cryer and her wife, Laurel Bowman-Cryer, US$75,000 and US$60,000 in damages respectively for rejecting their cake order in 2013.
On July 2 the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) handed the couple a final order for the same amount.
In April 2015, the couple raised nearly US$110,000 in donations via GoFundMe before the campaign was shut down by the site.
The company said the campaign was disabled as they were found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. It said at the time the Kleins will be allowed to withdraw the funds they have raised.
GoFundMe soon after changed their policy to include a ban on ‘claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts’ to make it easier for the company to remove campaigns for Christian-owned business owners fighting discrimination charges after declining to provide services for gay weddings.
The Washington Times reports that the Kleins started their fundraising campaign on Continue to Give on May 5 after their GoFundMe page was disabled.
Jesse Wellhoefer, the founder of Continue to Give which bills itself as ‘a faith-based giving platform,’ told the Washington Times that the Kleins have already broken the three-year-old site’s record for highest total raised and is continuing to raise funds.
He added that while his company has received ‘lots’ of complaints about the crowdfunding campaign, he will continue to host the campaign on his website.
‘Our response has been, “Thank you for your concern, have a great day and God bless you,’” he said.
The Kleins are expected to appeal the labor commissioner’s July 2 decision to the Oregon Court of Appeals.
The post Anti-gay-marriage Sweet Cakes bakers raise over US$350,000 appeared first on Gay Star News.
Sylvia Tan
www.gaystarnews.com/article/anti-gay-marriage-sweet-cakes-bakers-raise-over-us350000/
You Might Like
