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Indianapolis Bakery refuses service to gay student group

I see no reason to put words in the guy's mouth.
He has every right to refuse service to anyone he chooses.
If that negatively impacts his business, that's his responsibility.

Absolutely, and I am sure that he gave some sort of non-commital reason to the students for refusing to fill thier order (see note about wife's explanation of not enough colors).

However, something in the exchange obviously did not feel right to the students, so they contacted thier local media (a Fox affiliate no less). It wasn't until questioned by a reporter that he gave the quote in the OP.

As I stated above, the students are not challenging his legal right to refuse them service. They are excercising thier legal right to make as public as possible the values with which he runs his business.
 
Besides, if I had a bakery and they wanted me to make an anti-gay cookie I would have refused them.

I'm trying to think of how a cookie could be made to express an anti-gay message at all. Unless it was one of those big ones, and you just wrote something anti-gay in icing. Which would be cheating.
 
I see no reason to put words in the guy's mouth.

Humor and social criticism.

He has every right to refuse service to anyone he chooses.

Yes, and he has every right to do so based on irrational, religious-based bigotry.

If that negatively impacts his business, that's his responsibility.

It certainly is.

I must admit I'm baffled about the obscenity of rainbow cookies though. Where did he get that idea?

From the LGBT movement.
 
I'm trying to think of how a cookie could be made to express an anti-gay message at all. Unless it was one of those big ones, and you just wrote something anti-gay in icing. Which would be cheating.

How about a black-and-white cookie with EVIL=GAY written on the black side and GOOD=STRAIGHT on the white side?

ETA: Or, bright-red Satan-face cookies with the word GAY on them, in sparkly glitter, of course.
 
"Now you gays get outta my bakery so I can get back to my fudge packing!"
 
How about a black-and-white cookie with EVIL=GAY written on the black side and GOOD=STRAIGHT on the white side?

They'd likely have to abbreviate to "str8" to make it fit.

And with every bite they'd be putting evil gays in their mouth, which is probably not what they'd want.
 
You know, far from me to take away the people's right to make stupid decisions, but what baffles me is the (usual) reference to family and having children. In this case it's not getting into the details of what and how, but it usually seems to me to boil down to one of two stupidities:

1. Monkey see, monkey do. Those kids see two guys holding hands or some rainbow cookies and next thing you know, BAM, they're gay too.

2. If children ask about it, there is no possible way to answer other than going into excruciating detail and/or them ending up with vivid mental image. 'Cause, you know, if they see a boy and a girl kissing you can just tell them "they love each other" and they won't end up with a whole porn film in their head about it either, but if they see some rainbow cookies there's either no way to avoid telling them all the details of what gays do or no way to avoid them getting a mental image of that.

Really, the reference to obscenity makes me suspect #2.

I mean, really, for lack of a better definition of obscenity, I'll turn to the ruling by Chief Justice Warren Burger: "The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value"

Even skipping past the rather offensive necessity of ruling the LGBT movement as devoid of political value to meet point C, there's no way to get past A and B without essentially requiring that anyone who sees the rainbow cookies instantly gets a whole gay porn film going in their head about it.
 
Just curious: in the USA is he legally allowed to not serve people because (for example) they are black - in other words can he say "Won't take any orders from a black person"
 
there's no way to get past A and B without essentially requiring that anyone who sees the rainbow cookies instantly gets a whole gay porn film going in their head about it.

"Sex Bakery: Sweet Buns"
"Sex Bakery 2: Doughnut Holes"
"Sex Bakery 3: Black Cake, White Icing"

I'll start casting immediately, you arrange for a camera crew. This is going to make us millions.
 
Just curious: in the USA is he legally allowed to not serve people because (for example) they are black - in other words can he say "Won't take any orders from a black person"

Federal law prohibits racial discrimination for certain businesses, like restaurants and hotels. I don't think it applies to bakeries.
State and local laws vary. Some states require businesses that are open to the public to serve anyone, absent a good reason; other states allow you to refuse service to anyone.
 
Just curious: in the USA is he legally allowed to not serve people because (for example) they are black - in other words can he say "Won't take any orders from a black person"


While I'm not defending the bakery owner, that's not exactly what happened. He didn't refuse to serve them anything, he refused to make a cookie with a particular image on it.

A more accurate analogy would be him refusing to make a cookie for the local chapter of the DNC with a donkey on it. Retarded certainly, but not red-letter discrimination.
 
By the way, I had trouble not immediately thinking about Patrick Stewart's excellent Erotic Cakes sketch on SNL.
 
By the way, I had trouble not immediately thinking about Patrick Stewart's excellent Erotic Cakes sketch on SNL.

Ah yes, 'Tasty Cakes'. One of my favorite all-time sketches from SNL. Yes, this story brought that to my mind as well.
 
While I'm not defending the bakery owner, that's not exactly what happened. He didn't refuse to serve them anything, he refused to make a cookie with a particular image on it.

A more accurate analogy would be him refusing to make a cookie for the local chapter of the DNC with a donkey on it. Retarded certainly, but not red-letter discrimination.

Do you think he would have accepted the order if a local Christian church had asked for rainbow cookies for their harvest festival? I have to admit my speculation is that he wouldn't take the order because it was for "the gays and lesbians".
 
Maybe he didn't really think the rainbow was obscene. Maybe the group actually asked for double rainbows. What does it mean? Well, it's two rainbows ***********, of course. Almost a triple rainbow? Almost an orgy.
 

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