The two-year-old saga of the Oregon bakers who violated the state's anti-discrimination laws took another turn Saturday as they looked to restart a fundraising campaign to help them pay a potential six-figure debt.

GoFundMe shut down a page set up for the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa late Friday, saying it violated the terms of service for the crowdfunding web site.

In a statement explaining the decision to close the account, GoFundMe said:

"After careful review by our team, we have found the "Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa" campaign to be in violation of our Terms and Conditions. The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal. While a different campaign was recently permitted for a pizzeria in Indiana, no laws were violated and the campaign remained live. However, the subjects of the "Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa" campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled."

Closure of the account came on the day that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries issued a proposed order directing Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple who had come to their Gresham bakery in January 2013 to order a cake for their wedding.

The Kleins refused, citing their Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage. An administrative law judge ruled that the Kleins illegally discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation and on Friday, in a proposed order, recommended they pay damages to compensate the two women for their emotional suffering. Final authority to set the amount of damages lies with State Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian in issuing a final order.

The GoFundMe campaign quickly picked up steam, raising more than $100,000 in just a few hours before it was shut down.

GoLocalPDX reported that a Portland baker, Lisa Watson, of Cupcake Jones, started her own campaign to contact GoFundMe and report the Sweet Cakes campaign as being in violation of their terms of service.

"This business has been found GUILTY OF DISCRIMINATION and is being allowed to fundraise to pay their penalty," Watson said in a post on her Facebook page. "The gofundme terms of service address hate speech, bigotry, criminal activity, and sexism among other things in their campaign...The amount of money they have raised in a matter of a few hours by thousands of anonymous cowards is disgusting."

GoFundMe, a San Diego-based company, did not respond Saturday to a request for comment on its policies. A list of content "Not Allowed on GoFundMe" includes:

Campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts.

Materials including bigotry, racism, sexism, or profanity.

It's not clear if either or both were considered applicable to the Sweet Cakes page.

Late Friday, a post on the Sweet Cakes by Melissa page invoked the devil in calling attention to GoFundMe's action.

Evidently Go fund me has shut down our Go fund me page and will not let us raise any money. Satan's really at work but I know our God has a plan and wins in the end! Posted by Sweet Cakes by Melissa on Friday, April 24, 2015

By Saturday morning, the bakery owners had gone a step further, saying via their Facebook page that they were working to reinstate the GoFundMe page while also directing donors to another site.

The gofundme account that was set up to help our family was shut down by the administrators of gofundme because they... Posted by Sweet Cakes by Melissa on Saturday, April 25, 2015

Samaritan's Purse, founded by Franklin Graham, eldest son of the Rev. Billy Graham, describes itself as "a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world."

On its home page Saturday, the organization appealed to supporters to "Help persecuted Christian couple in Oregon fined for refusing to serve lesbians."

Samaritan's Purse is raising funds to help the Kleins pay their fine and meet other expenses. "They have taken a stand for the Word of God, and they should not have to stand alone," Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham said. "I believe that Christians across our nation will rally around Aaron and Melissa and their five children."

Friday's proposed order by BOLI administrative law judge Alan McCullough came after a four-day hearing in March, during which both the Kleins and the same-sex couple, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, testified they had been victimized.

The women, who were domestic partners at the time they sought to order the cake, both said they suffered emotional stress related to their experience with Sweet Cakes as well to unwanted media attention that soon followed.

Aaron Klein said reporters came to his home and his shop, the couple's business car was vandalized and broken into twice, and photographers and florists severed ties with the company, eventually forcing Sweet Cakes to close its Gresham storefront shop in September 2013. The business now operates out of the couple's home in Sandy.

-- George Rede

grede@oregonian.com

503-294-4004

@georgerede