A small cake shop in Colorado made international news last week after refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, David Mullins and Charlie Craig. The Materpiece Cake Shop owner, Jack Phillips, says that although he doesn’t have anything against gay people, his religious beliefs wont let him support gay marriage.
A petition was set up by 19 year old Macklin MacKenzie after hearing the news through a friend; the petition now has over 4,000 signatures. This led to David and Charlie organising the protest at the cake shop.
They said: “As gay men, we have been the recipients of many types of discrimination at various points in our lives, but this was the first time that either of us had ever been turned away from a business because of our sexuality.”
As the protest got underway across the street from the cake shop, supporters of Mr Phillips’ stance were in the store eating cake and reading the bible. One supporter, Doreen Rossi, said: “He believes in traditional marriage and he can, they can go to the bakery across the street and have a cake made.”
Despite the protest aiming to raise awareness of homophobia and discrimination, the negative publicity does not seem to have harmed the shop. Jack Phillips said: “Business wasn’t affected at all during the first part. Since then we have three or four times more people every day.”
Mullins said: “There’s a part of my heart that wishes that it wouldn’t be so, but you know in the end we’re here to raise awareness and you can only do that one person at a time.”
