Victor Ekong
Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who has previously been targeted by LGBTQ activists for refusing to bake cakes for them, is facing another lawsuit for his refusal to bake a cake celebrating a gender transition.
Phillips, who is the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, holds previous legal victories, including one from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018.
At the time, the Christian baker went on trial after he refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
At the present time, he is being sued by Autumn Scardina, a transgender attorney who wanted a cake that was blue on the outside and pink on the inside in celebration of her transition.
She had attempted to order the cake in 2017, on the same day when the Supreme Court said it would hear Phillip’s same-sex wedding case.
On Monday, Scardina met with a state judge in Denver, arguing that Phillips held to the belief that, as a Christian, he would not make the same-sex wedding cake because it involved a religious ceremony but would sell additional products, the Associated Press reports.
Phillips lawyer, however, contended that Phillips’s refusal to bake the transgender cake was about the message the cake portrayed and not because he was discriminating against Scardina.
Jim Campbell, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, denounced the latest case as “another attempt” to harass Phillips, as he has faced similar battles for almost the past decade.
“This latest lawsuit looks like yet another desperate attempt to harass cake artist Jack Phillips,” Campbell said.
“And it stumbles over the one detail that matters most: Jack serves everyone; he just cannot express all messages or celebrate all events through his custom cakes.”
“No American should be bullied or banished from the marketplace simply for living and working consistently with their faith,” he asserted.
“But this new lawsuit threatens to do just that.”
Scardina previously pressed charges against Phillips with the state and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission contending that discrimination took place.
In response, Phillips sued the state, alleging that it was engaging in a “crusade to crush” him with the complaint.
In 2019, both cases were dropped under a settlement permitting Scardina to proceed with a lawsuit independently.
