Lesbian Bakers Received Homophobic Pride Cake Order & Responded with Love

A Detroit couple who own the bakery Good Cakes and Bakes have spoken up to Pride Source about a recent homophobic cake order received online through their website.

Initially, co-owner April Anderson only saw the word "PRIDE" in all capital letters and didn't think anything was unusual. The bakery offers a Pride cake in June, but the order came in on July 19. "I thought, 'I have to make another one of those cakes?," Anderson said. But then she read the order more closely:

"I am ordering this cake to celebrate and have PRIDE in true Christian marriage. I'd like you to write on the cake, in icing, "Homosexual acts are gravely evil. (Catholic Catechism 2357")."

According to Detroit Free Press, "the $40 order was paid for by credit card and included a $10 tip." The order in question appears to have come from David Gordon, a congregant of Church Militant, based in Ferndale, Michigan, a "Catholic fringe group," according to Detroit Free Press.

In awe, Anderson showed the order to Michelle, her wife and bakery co-owner.

"Why would somebody order this from us?," Anderson said. "They know our bakery. It's not like it's a secret. It says it on our about page and social media pages and very clear that this bakery is owned by two lesbian women."

In accordance with the business' longstanding policy of requiring customers to call or come in to the shop for decorating requests – the bakery does not accept decorating requests with online orders – Anderson made the cake without the offending decorations. This was also within the law, according to Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the LGBTQ Project, ACLU of Michigan.

With the cake, Anderson and her wife left an accompanying letter, which stated in part:

"...by choosing to place your order at our bakery we offer you nothing but love. We feel the only 'grave evil' is the judgement that good christians, like yourself, impose on folks that don't meet their vision of what God wants them to be..."

When Gordon called about the cake on a Friday, he was told it would be ready the next day. A friend of the bakery owners, Eli Majid – owner of Eli's Tea Bar in Birmingham – organized on Facebook a group of approximately 40-45 people to show support for the bakery at the time the cake would be ready. Gordon never picked up the cake, and later the following week it was discarded. When he called again, he was informed that any decoration requests for further cakes would need to be completed over the phone or in person. Gordon did not order another cake.

Majid said, "That hatefulness is not a coincidence. They were trying to get her not to make the cake and she caught them on her bluff."

Regardless of Gordon's order – and the fact that this isn't the first time Good Cakes and Bakes has received such requests – Anderson said "we would have refused to write that message. It's not about... being homophobic. We don't write mean, hateful messages on cakes. That's not what we are about."