Bakersfield-based Tastries Bakery employees are given a handbook of owner Cathy Miller’s design standards for cakes: no alcoholic products, nothing violent or demeaning and no sexually explicit images.
Also, and it’s a standard that has led to litigation stretching five years, Miller does not make wedding cakes for gay couples. She says that would violate fundamental Christian principles stating marriage should only occur between a man and a woman.
There were never issues, Tastries manager Rosemary Perez testified Tuesday morning, until other store employees began filling wedding cake orders for gay couples without Miller’s knowledge.
Miller is being sued by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing for refusing to a bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. DFEH says Miller violated the Unruh Act — which provides for equal service to all people in all businesses — and is seeking to compel her to either bake wedding cakes for gay couples, have another employee make those cakes, or stop making wedding cakes altogether so there is no discrimination.
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