Oregon Official Who Destroyed Christian Bakery Over Gay Wedding Cake Loses Election
14th November 2016
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Brad Avakian has served as commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries since 2008. In that role, he achieved national notoriety for investigating Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a bakery that refused to furnish a wedding cake for two lesbians on the grounds that doing so would violate the owners’ Christian beliefs. In 2015, Avakian levied a $135,000 fine on the store’s owners, Aaron and Melissa Klein, declaring that their refusal to produce the cake wasn’t protected by the First Amendment and instead was simply illegal discrimination. In October, the bakery shut down entirely.