Oregon Couple Face 135k$ Fee Over Lesbian Wedding Cake Affair
By now you’ve probably heard of the case of Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the now-defunct Gresham-based Sweet Cakes bakery, who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
The lesbian couple turned away by a Gresham bakery that refused to make them a wedding cake for religious reasons should receive $135,000 in damages for their emotional suffering, a state hearings officer says.
Rachel Bowman-Cryer should collect $75,000 and her wife, Laurel Bowman-Cryer, $60,000 from the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, an administrative law judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said in a proposed order released Friday, April 24. …
Friends and allies set up a GoFundMe site to help the Kleins pay their expenses, but the site was closed down:
But in response to a query by The Oregonian/OregonLive, the San Diego-based company provided this email reply:
Thank you for writing to us about this campaign.
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 and have removed this campaign. The money raised thus far will still be made available for withdrawal.
You may review copy of our Terms and Conditions here: http://www.gofundme.com/terms.
One Oregonian’s letter (via Facebook) to Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian:
Greetings Mr. Avakian,
I’m neither Christian, nor do I oppose same-sex marriage. What I do vehemently oppose is bullying. In the case of the Klein family, after they declined to fill an order for a lesbian couple’s wedding cake, the actions of a segment of the public has indeed been menacing, shameful, and arguably crosses legal lines in terms of the level of threatening and harmful words and behavior directed at the Klein family.
Now the state itself may potentially act to further such bullying. Namely, by levying an exorbitant fine against the Klein family, which goes beyond their business assets, and cuts into their personal finances, which they need in no small part for their five children.
The fact is, the Klein family has lost their business, and has been found guilty, under Oregon law, for declining this customer inquiry. This is quite a lot. The subsequent death threats, continued harassment, and extreme distress that Mr. and Mrs. Klein, along with their children and other family members, have been subject to goes beyond that, and is disgraceful.
The Klein family has paid a heavy price for their conscientious objection to homosexuality, and the point has been clearly made: in Oregon, private business owners’ personal religious beliefs are not protected under the state’s laws, and they are not legally permitted under Oregon state law to decline service to other individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation – even when it violates their beliefs, identity, and constitutional right to freedom of religion.
To levy a fine on the Klein family of $135,000.00 for this lesbian couple is excessive, aimed at them personally (meant to hurt them as individuals, which would punish their children as well), and would reflect very badly on the public and legal officials of Oregon (it smacks of vengeance and not justice as understood and stated in Oregon state laws).
You, Mr. Avakian, have the direct power in this case to make a decision as to the amount of said fine, and thus deeply affect this family and their children, as well as make a very important statement about the system of justice within the state of Oregon.
I urge you to be reasonable and fair, look at the fact that no expert testimony was actually offered by lawyers for Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer concerning their claims for damages, and to seriously consider the future of the Klein family children.
Sincerely,
Alexis G. Shapira
Meanwhile, I can find no example of similar zeal on the part of leftist activists to punish the Muslim bakeries in Dearborn that made similar refusals.
Now maybe Crowder went to 20 bakeries and maybe most of them agreed to bake the cake. Great! Good on them. But if we go by the Oregon example, even one refusal is too many. Maybe Michigan’s laws are different from Oregon’s? Even so, why is not the whole leftist outrage machine firing full-bore on these guys?
I’ll tell you what it looks like to me. It looks like the leftist so-called “liberals” are picking on the easy targets, the safe targets – Christians – and piling on. And then they’re congratulating themselves on their enormous courage.
Ba’ath Roots of Daesh
Denise Natali at Al-Monitor explores the nexus between Islamic State and Iraq’s Ba’ath Party:
How could Iraqi Baathists, known for their secular ideology, find common ground with radical Salafist groups? While the presence and strength of former Baathist officers in IS appears contradictory it reflects the influence of the Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq al-Naqshbandi (JRTN), a group of Saddam’s former officers and Sunni Arab tribes that formed in reaction to the post-2003 Iraqi order. Led by Izzat al-Douri, Saddam’s former vice president and deputy chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council (proclaimed to be killed in a recent battle in Tikrit), the JRTN represents a fusion of Islam, Sunni Arab identity and Iraqi nationalism.
This fusion can be traced to the early 1990s, when Saddam commenced his Islamic faith campaign to consolidate Baath Party power. The campaign reflected geopolitical challenges and Iraqi security priorities after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1989) and Saddam’s attempts to control the “Zoroastrian” Iran and Persian-Shiite threat. It involved the Baath Party’s direct control of all religious policies and institutions in Iraq, creating Islamic structures, recruiting networks of spies and Islamic activists to work for the regime, and embedding Baath Party structures, members and security organs into religious circles.
By the late 1990s a “religious deep state” had emerged in Iraq, whereby most Sunni Islamic leaders and institutions that were created, co-opted and/or controlled by the regime were now inside the state. One of these institutions was the Islamic University of Baghdad, attended by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, current leader of the so-called IS caliphate. …
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was reported killed in a security operation, although Iraqi authorities are unable to confirm the identity of the body.
Read Natali’s article at the link. It follows Spiegel’s revelation of secret files recovered from Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, alias Haji Bakr.
The former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein’s air defense force had been secretly pulling the strings at IS for years. Former members of the group had repeatedly mentioned him as one of its leading figures. Still, it was never clear what exactly his role was.
But when the architect of the Islamic State died, he left something behind that he had intended to keep strictly confidential: the blueprint for this state. It is a folder full of handwritten organizational charts, lists and schedules, which describe how a country can be gradually subjugated. …
This is a good place to mention Michael Totten’s review of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan.
ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, paints a gripping and disturbing picture of this new “caliphate” in the Levant and Mesopotamia. In the most comprehensive account to date, the authors chronicle ISIS’s roots as the Iraqi franchise of al-Qaeda under its founding father, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, its near defeat at the hands of Americans and Iraqi militias in Anbar Province, its rebirth during the Syrian civil war, and its catastrophic return to Iraq as a conquering army last summer. …
Go read the rest at the link, and I recommend getting the book.
Amna Suraka
Not the most enjoyable part of my visit to Kurdistan, but certainly one of the most important. Amna Soraka (“Red Security”) is the building in central Sulemania that formerly housed one of Saddam’s most notorious prisons and torture chambers.
My friend Michael Totten visited here in 2006. Go read the whole story there.
Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival to End
It is the end of an era.
Some say that’s a good thing.
Others see it as one more erasure of lesbian cultural autonomy.
The era ending is that of the decades-long women-only festival known as MichFest, which turns 40 this August. While MichFest has never been promoted as a lesbian event, it has always been promoted as a women-only event and there’s no question that it has been a majority lesbian event since its inception.
This is why MichFest has been so vital to lesbian community. And also why for a good half of its existence MichFest has been mired in controversy. …
It was controversial because of the festival’s stated policy of being open exclusively to “womyn-born-womyn”, i.e. no transgender people of any stripe welcome. This became increasingly a point of conflict in an increasingly trans-inclusive feminist/lesbian community, and led to calls to boycott MWMF.
Be sure to read the rest of Brownworth’s article at the link.
More on the Kurdish Economy
I got a ride to Sulemania from a knowledgeable Kurd, and asked him about the economy. He helped fill in some of the gaps.
The effect of the Daesh attacks in Iraq, he said, was significant, but the main factor hurting the Kurdish economy has been Baghdad’s embargo of funds to Erbil. This didn’t happen in a vacuum or because of Daesh – it was to penalize Erbil for oil exports that Baghdad saw as conducted illegally without clearance from the central Iraqi government.
Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi: The Brains of Islamic State
Just in case you haven’t seen it yet, this article in Spiegel reveals a startling discovery about the origins and plans of Daesh (Islamic State, or Isis):
Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi was the real name of the Iraqi, whose bony features were softened by a white beard. But no one knew him by that name. Even his best-known pseudonym, Haji Bakr, wasn’t widely known. But that was precisely part of the plan. The former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein’s air defense force had been secretly pulling the strings at IS for years. Former members of the group had repeatedly mentioned him as one of its leading figures. Still, it was never clear what exactly his role was.
But when the architect of the Islamic State died, he left something behind that he had intended to keep strictly confidential: the blueprint for this state. It is a folder full of handwritten organizational charts, lists and schedules, which describe how a country can be gradually subjugated. SPIEGEL has gained exclusive access to the 31 pages …
On the Rocks
I wrote before that Kurdistan has experienced enormous economic growth in recent years. And that’s true, but it’s also true that the conflict with Daesh (Islamic State, or ISIS) over the past year has halted that growth for the time being.
I spent today taking a day trip out of town. My driver, host, and tour guide was a young man named Saleh, recently graduated with a degree in English. He filled me in on a few things.
Many new buildings are being built, but many others stand unfinished. Unfinished roads and half-built overpasses litter the landscape. The latter are a casualty of the government budget: Erbil is entirely dependent on Baghdad for its revenue, and Baghdad has defaulted on payments to the Kurds. (Remember, the Kurdistan region is still officially part of Iraq.) As for the private sector, some foreign investors were scared off by Daesh; there was also the problem of foreign laborers absconding with their advance pay and fleeing to Turkey.
The Daesh attacks further strained relations between Arabs and Kurds, too, leading to Arab families being delayed and harassed at Kurdish checkpoints and vice versa. This doesn’t do anything to make Korek an attractive destination for a family from Baghdad.
Saleh took me to the Korek Mountain Resort where we took the Teleferic (aerial tram) for a magnificent, though cloudy, view from the mountains. (A word of caution: if dangling hundreds of feet over rocky terrain isn’t your idea of a good time, you might want to skip this.) It looked like a mountain resort anywhere in America, and a year ago it was packed, he told me. But now it’s almost completely deserted.
We also stopped at Bekhal, a waterfall where you can take off your shoes and climb several sets of very slippery, wet stone steps to view the source of the mountain spring. I made the climb, somehow overcoming my fear of slipping and breaking my neck. The mountain tram was exciting enough, but the climb at Bekhal was absolutely terrifying. And this site, too, looked like it was built for huge crowds who had simply forgotten to show up.
I think things are starting to take a turn for the better. Foreign businesses are starting to realize that the Kurdish territory is, after all, very safe; just now Lufthansa has announced that it is resuming flights to Erbil.
We’re still in the off-season, so maybe things will pick up there soon. I hope so. And I hope the good times return soon for Kurdistan.
Family Mall, Erbil
At the risk of being tedious, I’m going to do one more post on modern Erbil.
These pictures are from the Family Mall, Erbil, just two years old, located on Peshawa Qazi at about two o’clock on Erbil’s coordinates. The name is in English – the Arabic writing on the sign is simply the words “Family Mall” transliterated into Arabic (or more precisely, Kurdish) script.
The French hypermarket Carrefour is represented there, as is the regional housewares chain Istanbul Home, and there’s a KFC. The place is huge – these few pictures don’t do it justice. I am reliably informed that it gets up to 30,000 visitors on a weekend. You might forget that the place is located in Iraqi Kurdistan if it weren’t for the booths calling for donations to support Peshmerga families. (In fact it occurred to me that somebody might look at these pictures and say “Get out of here! That ain’t in no Kurdistan.” Which is why I included that picture.)
Rawand took me for a brisk tour of the mall, and we stopped for a glass of juice. (The Kurds are big juice drinkers.) He stopped at the bank to change some currency and we headed on out. As we were leaving, he called my attention to one of the cleaning workers pushing a broom.
“Almost all of those guys are foreign workers,” he said, young men from third-world countries. This is the challenge of Kurdistan’s new-found prosperity: young men are now unwilling to do what they consider to be menial jobs. It’s a problem Kurdish society will have to deal with.
Friday’s Language
Erbil has a TGI Fridays.
It’s located on the road running from ‘Ainkawa to Erbil City Center, and is one of the places I passed yesterday on my way into town. Only I didn’t just pass it, I went in.
This isn’t one of those Middle Eastern knock-offs of American brands; it is the real thing. The decor inside is just as you’d expect from any TGIF location in the States. (As a courtesy to the staff and patrons, I resisted the temptation to snap a bunch of photos inside, but I was tempted.) Immediately I was set upon by friendly, helpful waiters and shown to a table. The patrons were a mix of Westerners and Middle Easterners; there was a group of three or four laughing girls in Muslim headscarves at a nearby booth. If I had to pick one word to describe the mood overall I’d say it was cheerful.
I ordered something light (juice, salad, bread) and enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. The place was brand new – it only opened last week – and they were determined to make a good impression. The staff were English-speaking and almost entirely Filipino (because of course) and very courteous and professional (like I said, Filipinos).
On my way out, I chatted briefly with the manager, and this is what he told me:
This is our fourth day. We opened on Thursday, so today is our fourth day. Is it hard to recruit staff to work here? No, not at all. We bring staff from the Philippines, Egypt, and some other places. Most of our customers are American, Kurdish, Lebanese, Egyptian, and some from Russia.
The staff don’t speak much Kurdish or Arabic, mainly English. They know how to say what is a chickenburger, what is beef, and that’s about it. So our language is Friday’s language – English.
I like the people here, they’re very nice. Business is very good, better than we expected. And it’s so green here – I worked in Kuwait six years before this, and Kuwait is all desert. But here it’s green.
You might wonder why I’m sitting in an ancient Middle Eastern city and writing about an American restaurant. But the economy in Erbil is growing incredibly fast, and Erbil stands poised to become a world-class city. For the Kurds, who have suffered so much for so long, this will be a good thing.
Freedom and Power 