The Indiana chapter of the American
Family Association (AFA) says selling gay cupcakes goes “beyond the
pale.”
In weighing in on the controversy over
a baker's refusal to sell gay cupcakes to a group of Indiana
University-Purdue University at Indianapolis students for an October
11 National Coming Out Day event, the group's spokesman, Micah Clark,
defended the baker.
The students were first told the
bakery, Just Cookies located inside the publicly-owned City Market,
does not sell cupcakes, but when the students asked for
rainbow-frosted cookies, they were told to go elsewhere.
“I explained we're a family-run
business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought
maybe it was best not do that,” David Stockton, co-owner of the
bakery, told a reporter.
Stockton then likened colorful cupcakes
to something obscene.
“We have our values, and you know,
some things … for instance, if someone wants a cookie with an
obscenity, well, we're not going to sell that,” he said.
Citing a city ordinance that bans
discrimination based on sexual orientation, Wayne Schmidt, president
of the City Market Board, told the Indianapolis
Star that the bakery could lose its lease.
“That could be grounds for taking
away their stand in the market,” he said. “I'd hate to lose
them, but we can't tolerate any kind of discrimination like that.”
“If this were a Muslim-owned bakery,
what would happen?” Clark told the paper. “I don't think the
city would pursue it the way they're pursuing it now.”
“It's one thing if someone walks into
a store and buys a cookie off the shelf, but [the Stocktons] were
being asked to become part of the celebration. To make rainbow
cookies for a special event with which the company has a
disagreement – I think that goes beyond the pale of what we should
expect companies to do,” he added.