US: Colorado baker fights ruling over gender transition cake
Colorado baker Jack Phillips
The Colorado baker who won a partial Supreme Court victory after refusing to make a gay couple's wedding cake on religious grounds ten years ago is contesting a second judgment that his refusal to make a cake commemorating a gender transition violated the state's anti-discrimination legislation.
On Wednesday, a lawyer representing Jack Phillips urged Colorado's appeals court to reject last year's decision in a lawsuit brought by a transgender woman, primarily on procedural grounds.
In order to commemorate her gender transition, the woman, Autumn Scardina, called Phillips' suburban Denver cake store in 2017 and asked for a birthday cake with blue icing on the outside and pink frosting inside. Christian witness Phillips said during his testimony at the trial last year that he did not believe that one could alter their gender.
The verdict was incorrect, according to Jake Warner, a lawyer for Phillips from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group. According to him, forcing Phillips to make a cake with a message that conflicts with his religious convictions would violate his right to free speech since it would require him to say something he does not believe.
Judge Timothy Schutz noted Phillips’ wife initially told Scardina the bakery could make the cake before Scardina volunteered that the design was meant to celebrate her gender transition.
Outside of court, Scardina and Phillips discussed the bigger concerns at play. The "dignity of LGBTQ Americans and Coloradans and the rule of law," according to Scardina, were at issue in the case. Phillips claimed he was fighting for everyone's ability to follow their consciences "without fear of retribution" from the state.
In 2018, following Phillips' refusal to make a cake commemorating Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins' 2012 wedding, the Supreme Court held that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had violated the anti-discrimination law against him with anti-religious bias. The judges criticised the committee for improperly disparaging Phillips' religious convictions.
(With inputs from agencies)
WATCH WION LIVE HERE: