U.S.
ROBYN BECK / AFP / Getty Images
A suburban Denver baker who wouldn't make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple may not cite his religious beliefs as legal grounds for his refusal because it would lead to discrimination, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
The decision is the latest victory for same-sex couples, who have won similar cases in other states. Gay rights supporters and religious freedom advocates have passionately debated whether individuals may cite their beliefs as a basis for declining to provide services for same-sex weddings.
And it is bound to get more heated after the U.S. Supreme Court recently legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
In the Colorado case, Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, declined to make a cake for Charlie Craig and David Mullins in 2012. They were married in Massachusetts and planned to celebrate in Colorado.
After the ruling, Phillips faces fines if he refuses to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples. He maintained that he has no problem serving gay people at his store but that making a cake for a same-sex wedding would violate his Christian beliefs.
His attorneys said they would consider appealing up to the U.S. Supreme Court. They said there are bound to be more cases in which business owners' religious convictions clash with gay rights.
In recent cases elsewhere, a bakery in the Portland, Oregon, area that declined to make a wedding cake for a gay couple two years ago was ordered to pay $135,000 in damages in July.
Two years ago, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that a photographer who wouldn't take pictures of a same-sex couple's 2006 commitment ceremony violated the state's anti-discrimination law.
In Washington state, a florist has been fighting a lawsuit filed after she refused to provide services for a gay wedding in 2013.
Phillips' case started at Colorado's Civil Rights Commission, with which Craig and Mullins filed their complaint. In December 2013 a judge for the commission ruled that Phillips discriminated against the couple. The judge ordered him to change his store policy against making cakes for gay weddings or face fines. He then went to the Colorado Court of Appeals.
The Associated Press
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