Jim Reeves

Visalia

California's Unruh Civil Rights Act says, "51 (b) All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever." (bolding mine - author)

On Saturday, August 26, 2017, a gay couple was refused service by Cathy Miller, owner of Bakersfield's Tastries Bakery. Ted and Adam had an appointment to choose and order a wedding cake. They had been into the store twice prior to this scheduled appointment and had spoken to staff about the ordering a cake for their wedding. When Miller realized the cake would be for the wedding of the two men in front of her, she immediately "transferred" their appointment to another bakery. (Points for that, at least? on second thought, no... no points. Discrimination is still discrimination.)

Here's the Facebook post by Ted:

So the fiancé and I are out cake tasting in Bakersfield for OUR BIG DAY and the lady helping us (I have another name for her) asks, “So this is for the bride and groom?” (turning to Adam’s Mom) Uh, no it says Adam and Ted on your form! When we let her know that it’s for us, she quickly (without hesitation) replies “Well I’m going to transfer your order to Stephanie @ Gimme Some Sugar Cakes”. She stands up, walks away, and calls Stephanie to “transfer” us (I think she meant to say REFUSE SERVICE to us) and refer us for an appointment. After she leaves a voice mail with Stephanie she comes back to update us and says “Ok, I’ve called her and left a message. We can do the design and Stephanie can do the filling. Your welcome to stay and enjoy MY cupcakes....” and walks off #discrimination is alive and well in this [edited] up world. #loveislove

The Bakersfield LGBTQ community is understandably annoyed with Tastries. And this doesn't seem to be the first time this has happened at this business. A Yelp comment from a lesbian couple in Bakersfield:

" I went here to ask them to make a cake for my son's first birthday... and had a lot of excuses as to why it couldn't be done on time... obviously my money is no good... now I'm starting to see maybe it is because I walked in with my wife... bigotry at it's best. What a disgrace to behave like that, especially a business..." - Veronica C.

It's a disgrace, and it's against California law. It's also really idiotic, from a purely business point of view. Nobody throws a party like gay men, and a business stands to make a tidy sum catering to a gay wedding. Tastries must be doing very well to turn that down.

JL takes Miller's side, and Yelps:

"Lovely place, hardworking people producing scrumptious treats! .It's just wrong that someone would want to force you to violate what you hold important.So sorry they are using your wonderful business to get attention, rather than simply seeking another baker.I applaud you standing by your Christian beliefs.I will be in again, soon."

Nobody is doing this for attention. The couple involved are not attention-seeking activists, and if they had known in advance that Tastries would violate California law and refuse them service simply because they were gay, they would never have set foot in the place. Both Ted and Adam believe this should have been disclosed to them during their first visit to the store, and the entire situation could have been avoided. The blame for this mess rests squarely at the feet of Cathy Miller at Tastries.

It's also a shame that staff apparently did not know the owner would refuse to serve a gay couple. In two prior visits, where they did not interact with the owner personally, Ted and Adam were treated warmly by staff. It was clear to employees what the cake was for, and there was no issue until the owner herself became involved. I've heard that two employees walked out when they realized what happened. Good employees are worth a lot, and it's unfortunate that they got caught in the middle of such nonsense.

"We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To Anyone" does not mean you get to ignore California law at your whim. Your religion does not trump anybody else's civil rights. Some folks have said that members of the LGBTQ community should simply go someplace else, instead of making an issue of discrimination. As far as I am concerned, if Tastries doesn't want to comply with the law here, then THEY should go someplace where the law doesn't protect people from religious bigotry. (oh, yes. Bigotry. I'd love to know how may people she's turned down for cakes because they lived together before getting married. Or how many she's made for second weddings. The list goes on. Sin is sin, they say, but it's interesting how often it's only LGBT "sin" that makes them take a stand.)

The news is going viral in Bakersfield, and well beyond. It didn't take long for Ted and Adam to start getting messages from as far away as Iowa and Arizona. I'm happy to see that, it angers me to see good people treated so shabbily by a self-righteous woman. I'm also surprised to see her admit on a Bakersfield news channel that she deliberately violated the law. I assume she's blissfully unaware of the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Hopefully someone will clue her in.

If it were me, I'd be contacting an attorney, or at least the California Department of Justice. I'm pretty sure Ted and Adam won't, that's just not them. They had no intention or expectation of their posts going viral, and were simply venting their frustrations about the whole ordeal.

Now for some disclaimers. This blog is my opinion only, not necessarily Ted and Adam's. I have known Ted for twenty years, he is a close friend. I've known Adam for a couple of years now. I will be the officiant at their wedding next year. We had a long talk about this incident in my home Saturday evening, and discussed the entire situation. They looked over the post before I finished it, to insure the facts of the matter as each of us understood them.