In 2012, two gay men visited a small bakery in Lakewood, Colorado asking for a cake for their upcoming wedding ceremony. The owner of the shop, Jack Phillips, politely informed them that he could not provide a custom wedding cake for a gay wedding due to his Christian beliefs, but he offered to sell them any other baked good in stock. The couple left and promptly filed a human rights complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which sided with the couple and ordered Phillips to bake the cake, pay a fine, and attend mandatory anti-discrimination training.
Phillips appealed the decision, and the ensuing six years were a nightmare of litigation, fines, and court cases, culminating in arguments presented to the Supreme Court. But even after the Supreme Court sided with Phillips and chastised the Civil Rights Commission for its overreach, still the LGBT lobby would not leave the matter alone. A few years later, Phillips was in court yet again for declining to make a cake, this time a cake meant to honor a man’s “transition” into a woman (a request made by a trans activist who was clearly looking for an excuse to sue).
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