Bay County couples wed after Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage

The recent Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage and the owners of an Oregon bakery being fined $135,000 for denying service to a gay couple have sparked debate about whether business owners should be allowed to deny service to LGBT customers because serving them would violate their religious beliefs. This photo shows a same-sex wedding last month in Bay County, Michigan.

(Associated Press file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - News of the owners of an Oregon bakery having to pay $135,000 in damages earlier this month, for denying service to a same-sex couple wanting to order a wedding cake, proved popular in social media and for talk show banter.

A common theme ran through the chatter about the fine, which was issued about a week after the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. Regardless of whether comments came from supporters or opponents of the bakery owners having to pay damages, both believed there was a big divide in the wedding industry about whether small-business owners should be allowed to deny services to LGBT customers if doing so violated the entrepreneur's religious beliefs.

Supporters of the fine were outraged that any business owner would want to discriminate against potential customers based on sexual orientation. Opponents of the fine were outraged that entrepreneurs could face public scrutiny, or even have to pay huge damages, by practicing their religion.

But there is little evidence supporting that small-business owners are split about wanting to deny service to LGBT customers. In fact, most business owners believe such customers should not be denied service, according to a national poll released Monday.

The survey found that 65 percent of small businesses in the retail and service industries oppose denying services to LGBT individuals, even for wedding-related service. The Small Business Majority, which has 40,000 members, was among the groups that commissioned the survey.

Interviews The Plain Dealer conducted this week with business owners, including those in the wedding industry, suggest that most of these entrepreneurs don't want to deny service to LGBT customers.

Richard Markel said he contacts 60,000 entrepreneurs and others in the wedding business as president of the Association for Wedding Professionals International, or AFWPI, based in Sacramento, California. He said the wedding industry was hard hit by the Great Recession, and is just starting to bounce back. Markel said most entrepreneurs are more concerned with attracting clients, not turning them away.

"Business is business," he said.

In fact, many are enthusiastic about finding ways to cultivate this emerging customer base of same-sex couples.

"Will it be lucrative?" said Markel, who produces bridal shows. "It is hard to determine. Initially, we didn't expect much. As soon as it became legal, they ran to the courthouse and got married. They didn't pick up the phone and call a wedding planner."

Even before the economic downturn, Markel said most wedding professionals were open to serving a LGBT clientele. He recalled an informal AFWPI survey, in which 10,000 wedding professionals participated, done after California first legalized same-sex marriage in mid-2008. The number of wedding professionals expressing reservations about serving gay customers was only a few percent, he said.

(Later that year, Proposition 8 barred such marriages. Gay marriage became legal again after a federal district court declared the measure, which was approved by voters, unconstitutional.)

"Those surveyed, said, 'I got in (the) business to help people celebrate,'" Markel said.

The Small Business Majority survey, which was a scientific poll, also showed support for providing service to the LGBT community. The poll of 500 small business owners found that nearly 60 percent of respondents said they opposed laws that would allow individuals, associations and businesses to legally refuse service to anyone based on religious beliefs. Only about 20 percent said they would strongly favor such laws.

The poll also found that 80 percent of small-business owners said they would support a federal law banning discrimination against LGBT people in public accommodations, which include restaurants, hotels and other businesses open to the public.

"The topic of religious freedom and how it relates to business practices has been front and center in the media," said John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of the Small Business Majority, in a news release. "And once again, small businesses are in the middle of the debate," he said. "As these results make clear, our nation's biggest job creators support policies that are fair and inclusive to all customers and employees."

In addition to his group, the poll was conducted for the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and the American United Fund, a conservative LGBT organization. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percent.

The poll was conducted April 16 to 24. Though a few months before the Supreme Court decision and the Oregon business owners being ordered to pay damages, the survey was take only a few weeks after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law revisions to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Many had protested against the law, saying that it would have allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers. The Indiana law sparked national debate just as much as the bakery owners in Oregon being fined.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries ordered the married couple, who own the Sweetcakes by Melissa bakery, to pay damages for refusing to do business with a lesbian couple who wanted to order a cake for their wedding. The state awarded damages to the same-sex couple "for emotional suffering stemming directly from unlawful discrimination."

In January 2013, only one of the betrothed had gone to the bakery to order the cake. When the male owner asked for the groom's name, and was told there would be two brides, he said he and his wife did not do cakes for same-sex weddings because it was against their religious convictions. The couple said the male owner referred to them as an "abomination" for being gay.

The exchanges between both parties didn't end with the bakery visit. The male owner posted the couple's formal complaint, which was a public record, on Facebook and gave media interviews saying that the couple was denied service because of their sexual orientation. Supporters of lesbian couple organized a demonstration outside of the bakery.

The couple were able to file a complaint against the bakery's owners because under Oregon law, a business cannot discriminate or refuse service based on sexual orientation.

"Complaints under the Oregon Equality Act of 2007 are rare," state the bureau's news release about the fine. "In fact, the agency has found substantial evidence of violations in only seven investigations of Equality Act accommodations complaints in the seven years since the law took effect."

No such law exists in Ohio, so businesses here can refuse the business of gay customers based on religious convictions.

See: Discrimination against gays legal in Ohio: employment is fight now that gay marriage is legal

Despite Ohio having no such law, Steve Millard, president and executive director of COSE, or the Council of Smaller Enterprises, doubts if many businesses in the state are turning away business from the LGBT community.

"When you set up to do business with the public, your services are available to anyone that walks through the door -- white, black, Christian, Muslim or gay," he said.

"That's part of doing business -- like paying taxes or complying with regulations. That doesn't mean a small-business owner can't put up a sign that says: 'We are devout Christians and prefer to do business with other devout Christians.'

"That is within their rights - but probably not good for their business in the long term," Millard said. "And, it's not likely that someone out of sync with those expressed beliefs is going to even want to walk through their door."

Sharon Marrell is owner and repair technician at Marrell Musical Instrument Repair in Lakewood. Even though Lakewood has a long-established LGBT community, she said the widespread Internet chatter and other discussions about businesses turning away gay customers is motivating her to raise the issue with the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, in which she is active, just to be sure.

"Do we need to do anything else, even as a city, to make sure there are provisions and to make sure the LGBT community won't be denied access to anything?" she asked.

Marrell hasn't heard of any area businesses turning away LGBT customers. She knows such behavior is unlikely to be tolerated in a place such as Lakewood.

There may be another reason, as well.

"When I look at it from the entrepreneur's side, I know that there are 28 million businesses out there," she said. "Then you consider 22 million just break even. For someone to deny service, based upon their beliefs, you are really cutting off your nose to spite yourself when it come to your own business."