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Pennsylvania Bakery Latest To Refuse Service To Same-Sex Couple

CREDIT: THECAKEPROS.COM
CREDIT: THECAKEPROS.COM

For at least the third time since marriage equality arrived in Pennsylvania, a wedding vendor has refused service to a same-sex couple. As reported by WBRE, Lorraine Fleming of The Cake Pros in Schuylkill Haven told Jennifer and Bethany Petrich that she could not even meet with them to discuss a cake for a ceremony to renew their vows.

In a call to Jennifer’s mother, who had originally scheduled an appointment for the couple, the bakery allegedly said that “they were a Christian bakery and the owner talked to Jesus for two weeks… and that because it was two females getting married she couldn’t bake our cake.”

Fleming said that she was “sorry for the damage that has been done as far as hurt feelings,” but she stands by her decision not to provide the cake. “I’m not sorry for my decision and I feel strong,” she told WBRE. “I know that I’m doing the right thing.” Even though she has homosexuality in her family, she’ believes that “when I die and I’m one on one with God, I have to stand true to him.” Fleming is also now claiming that her employees have been harassed and that the bakery has taken down its Facebook page because of the heated discussion taking place there.

“We asked her to make us a wedding cake,” Jennifer countered, “not marry us.”

The Cake Pros is the second story of anti-gay discrimination in Pennsylvania in just the past week. A bridal shop in Bloomsburg refused to sell dresses to a same-sex couple last week because it “would break God’s law.” Last month, a wedding venue outside Scranton similarly told a same-sex couple that they could not hold their wedding there.

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The fact that so many stories of discrimination are popping up in Pennsylvania is not surprising. Pennsylvania is the only state where it is legal for same-sex couples to marry, but where there are no legal protections whatsoever for sexual orientation and gender identity. Statewide, there is no law that prevents LGBT people from being fired, denied housing, or refused service because of their identities.