Fox News Radio reporter Todd Starnes blasted “militant homosexuals” for opposing businesses that discriminate against gay customers, baselessly attacking anti-discrimination laws as assaults on First Amendment rights.

Willamette Week, an alternative weekly based in Portland, Oregon, reported on September 1 that Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a local bakery that came under fire in February for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, closed its storefront and will instead operate out of an “in home bakery.” The move comes after the couple at the center of the controversy filed a complaint against the bakery for violating the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, which prohibits discrimination against LGBT individuals in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Starnes did not take kindly to the news. In a September 3 column for FoxNews.com, Starnes condemned the “vicious boycott by militant homosexual activists” for “forc[ing]” the business to close its storefront. Even as the bakery owners decried the “sin” of homosexuality and lamented the “LGBT attacks” against their discriminatory business practices, Starnes uncritically noted their assertion that they have “nothing against homosexuals.” Starnes then argued that businesses should be allowed to discriminate against gay people, as “God's law” should trump “man's law” :

[Co-owner Aaron] Klein tells me he has nothing against homosexuals -- but because of their religious faith, the family simply cannot take part in gay wedding events. “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said. “I don't want to help somebody celebrate a commitment to a lifetime of sin.” [...] Commissioner Brad Avakian told The Oregonian that he was committed to a fair and thorough investigation to determine whether the bakery discriminated against the lesbians. “Everybody is entitled to their own beliefs, but that doesn't mean that folks have the right to discriminate,” he told the newspaper. “The goal is to rehabilitate. For those who do violate the law, we want them to learn from that experience and have a good, successful business in Oregon.” In other words, Christians who live and work in Oregon must follow man's law instead of God's law. But in a show of benevolence, the state is willing to rehabilitate and reeducate Christian business owners like the Kleins. [...] Klein said it's becoming clear that Christians do not have the “right to believe what we believe.” In other words, gay rights trump religious rights.

Starnes listed other examples of businesses that were criticized for refusing to serve LGBT customers, including a T-shirt company that refused to serve a gay rights organization and a cookie shop that refused to make rainbow cookies for National Coming Out Day. Starnes asserts these businesses should have the right to turn away gay customers on religious grounds, even when the services being offered have nothing at all to do with the issue of same-sex marriage.

While the “vicious” LGBT boycott of Sweet Cakes by Melissa provoked Starnes' outrage, he has no qualms about boycotting businesses that don't adhere to his anti-LGBT views. After a Manhattan barbecue restaurant stopped renting its space to an anti-gay church in July, Starnes vowed he'd never set foot in the restaurant again.