A Colorado man has filed a
discrimination complaint against a baker over her refusal to sell him
a cake with an anti-gay message.
Fox31 Denver identified the man as Bill
Jack, a Christian educator who lives in Castle Rock.
Jack alleges that Marjorie Silva, owner
of Denver's Azucar Bakery, discriminated against his religious
beliefs when she refused to sell him the cake.
According to Silva, she agreed to sell
a Bible-shaped cake to a man last year, but backed out when he asked
for the cake to include hateful words about gays and an X over two
grooms holding hands.
Silva said that the customer would not
agree to her suggestion that he write the message on the cake
himself.
“It's just horrible,” she
said. “It doesn't matter if, you know, if you're Catholic, or
Jewish, or Christian, if I'm gay or not gay or whatever,” the
40-year-old Silva said. “We should all be loving each other. I
mean there's no reason to discriminate.”
Jack filed his confidential complaint
with Colorado's Civil Rights Division.
“I believe I was discriminated
against by the bakery based on my creed,” Jack said in a statement
supplied to Fox31
Denver. “As a result, I filed a compliant with the Colorado
Civil Rights division. Out of respect for the process, I will wait
for the director to release his findings before making further
comments.”
Mark Silverstein, legal director of the
Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
rejected claims that Silva had violated the state's public
accommodation law.
“There's no law that says that a
cake-maker has to write obscenities in the cake just because the
customer wants it,” he said.
Silva added she “should be the one
putting the complaint against him, because he has a very
discriminating message.”
This is the second high-profile
discrimination case in the Denver area involving bakers. Jack
Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, refused to bake
a wedding cake for a gay couple claiming that it would violate his
religious beliefs. He is currently fighting a legal order requiring
him to serve all customers regardless of sexual orientation.
(Related: Colorado
baker says Jesus wants him to discriminate against gay couples.)