The owners of a bakery found guilty of anti-gay discrimination have had their fundraising campaign canceled, and believe the devil is behind it.
Friday, after nearly two years in court, an Oregon judge recommended Aaron and Melissa Klein be fined $135,000 for discriminating against a same-sex couple. The Kleins, who own Sweet Cakes by Melissa, had refused to bake a wedding cake for the couple.
On their Facebook page yesterday, the Kleins posted a link to a GoFundMe fundraising campaign set up for them. In just four hours it had reached over $20,000. It quickly increased to a reported $109,000 before GoFundMe canceled it.
Why?
GoFundMe says it does not allow money to be raised on their site for people who have been found to be in violation of the law.
“After careful review by our team, we have found the ‘Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa’ campaign to be in violation of our Terms and Conditions,” GoFundMe said in a statement.Â
“The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal. While a different campaign was recently permitted for a pizzeria in Indiana, no laws were violated and the campaign remained live. However, the subjects of the ‘Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa’ campaign have been formally charged by local authorities and found to be in violation of Oregon state law concerning discriminatory acts. Accordingly, the campaign has been disabled.”
Upon learning the news, the Kleins took to their Facebook page again.
“Evidently Go fund me has shut down our Go fund me page and will not let us raise any money. Satan’s really at work but I know our God has a plan and wins in the end!”
One Facebook commenter left this insightful message in response:
And another made an excellent suggestion: