Colorado Gay Couple Sues Bakery For Refusing To Sell Wedding Cake

A gay couple in Colorado were recently turned away when they tried to procure a wedding cake.

Now they're striking back by filing a discrimination complaint against the Colorado bakery after they refused to honor their Massachusett's union. 

The couple is alleging that the cake shop in question has a history of turning away same-sex married couples, and how it plays out in court will go a long way towards determining how the courts will react with more and more states allowing same-sex marriages. 

David Mullins and Charlie Craig allege their order for a rainbow wedding cake was turned down by a Colorado bakery because of their sexual orientation.

Mark Silberstein, the legal director of the ACLU in Colorado, filed the complaint for the couple and told the AP, "Religious freedom is a fundamental right in America and it's something that we champion at the ACLU. We are all entitled to our religious beliefs and we fight for that. But someone's personal religious beliefs don't justify breaking the law by discriminating against others in the public sphere."

The attorney's for Jack Phillips, one of the owners of the Masterpiece Cakeshop, see it differently.

Nicolle Martin, agrees that the case is important because it will serve as an example for future cases across the country as more gay couples are granted the legal right to marry their partners. 

But, "We don't believe that this is a case about commerce. At its heart, this is a case about conscience." said said.

"It brings it to the forefront. I just don't think that we should heighten one person's beliefs over and above another person's beliefs," she continued.

The Colorado Attorney General's office filed a formal complaint last week after the ACLU initiated the process last year on behalf of David Mullins and Charlie Craig. The case is scheduled for a hearing in September before Colorado's Civil Rights Commission.

Mullins, 28, and Craig, 33, filed their discrimination complaint against Phillips after visiting his cake shop in suburban Denver last summer. 

After the couple started looking at wedding cake pictures to select on for their Colorado ceremony, Philips told them he wouldn't make one for them when he found out it was to celebrate their wedding. 

According to the complaint, Phillips has said making the wedding cake for gay couples would violate his Christian religious beliefs.

Mullins told the AP, "We were all very upset, but I was angry and I felt dehumanized and mortified."

Mullins continued, after venting about the discriminatory nature of Phillips' response on Facebook and getting the story picked up by local bloggers and civil rights champions, "We felt that the best way to honor the support that they had given us was to follow this complaint through."

The ACLU found out about two other gay couples who had been refused a wedding cake from the same cake shop and they signed affidavits in support of the discrimination complaint.

In 2006 Colorado banned gay marriage. In 1992, voters even approved a ban on municipal anti-discrimination laws to protect gays.

Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court said the "Amendment 2" law was unconstitutional.

The complaint by Mullins and Craig seeks to force Phillips' cake shop to "cease and desist" refusing service to gay couples, and to inform the public his cake shop is open to any and all customer, regardless of sexual orientation. 

If Phillips loses the case and doesn't comply with a judge's order, he could be fined $500 in each instance and face a year in jail. 

Phillips' attorney, Nicolle Martin, says that's a choice he shouldn't have to make, saying, "It would force him to choose between his conscience and a paycheck. I just think that's an intolerable choice."