There have been a number of “wedding industry” religious freedom cases arising in the United States and the UK over the last few years. On 28 December 2017 the Oregon Court of Appeals, in Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries ( CA Or; Dec 28, 2017, — P.3d —-, 2017 WL 6613356; 289 Or App 507 (2017)) upheld a $135,000 fine levied on the Kleins, wedding cake makers, for declining to make a cake for the wedding of Rachel and Laurel Bowmen-Cryer. The case is another example of religious freedom (and, arguably, freedom of speech) being over-ridden in the name of “dignitary harm” to same-sex couples. It is a good example of the issues being presented to the current Ruddock Inquiry into Religious Freedom being conducted in Australia at the moment. Facts Melissa and Aaron Klein were the owners of a bakery doing business as Sweetcakes by Melissa. They regularly made wedding cakes. Melissa had in fact supplied a wedding cake to Rachel Bowmen-Cryer previously, ordered by Rachel for the wedding of her mother Cheryl. On Jan 17, 2013, Rachel and her mother visited the shop, where Aaron was serving at the time, to order a cake for Rachel’s same sex wedding to Laurel. On discovering that both parties were women, Aaron said that “he was sorry, but that Sweetcakes did not make wedding cakes for same-sex ceremonies because of his and Melissa’s religious convictions” – as noted at p 512 of the report. There was then […]
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