BAKERSFIELD, California (LifeSiteNews) — A California court has issued a unanimous ruling that a Kern County baker violated California law when she chose not to make a “wedding” cake for two lesbians.
Cathy Miller, owner of Cathy’s Creations and Tastries in Bakersfield, California, filed a brief in January 2024 after undergoing “over six years of prosecution and a five-day trial on the merits.”
A devout Christian, Miller said she believes “wedding cakes must not contradict God’s sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman.”
“This case is not just about Cathy Miller – it’s about protecting the rights of all Americans to live and work according to their deeply held beliefs,” said Charles LiMandri, an attorney for Miller. “We will continue to fight in the courts on Cathy’s behalf to ensure that the freedom to live out her faith through her creative work is upheld and that justice is fully served.”
In 2022, a Superior Court judge ruled in her favor in the case brought against her by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). However, California Family Council pointed out at the time that Miller was “still awaiting a decision from the Court of Appeal of the State of California.”
Miller, represented by the Thomas More Society and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, had asked the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fifth Appellate District, to affirm the Superior Court’s judgment.
The case stems from a 2017 incident in which lesbian “couple” Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio sought to commission a “wedding” cake from Miller’s bakery. When Miller refused due to her Christian belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, the pair filed a complaint with the DFEH.
“Everyone is God’s creation, and I love everyone,” Miller previously explained. “But there are certain things that violate my conscience, and my conscience will not allow me to participate in things that I feel are wrong. Most of what that’s based on is scripture.”
Years before the request from the lesbians, Miller had created a list of “design standards” in consultation with her Baptist pastor after receiving vulgar requests for custom work.
“For example, Miller will not design cakes that celebrate divorce, display violence, glorify drunkenness or drug use, contain explicit sexual content, or present gory, demonic, or satanic images,” Miller’s January 2024 filing stated, adding that she “also will not design cakes that demean any person or group for any reason, or that promote racism, or any other message that conflicts with Christian principles.”
It was in keeping with those design standards that Miller rejected the request to bake a “wedding” cake for the homosexuals.
Miller’s plight mirrors that of Colorado Christian baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who has similarly undergone more than a decade of litigation that began with his 2012 refusal to bake a cake for a homosexual “wedding.”
Phillips won his case in a narrow ruling in 2018, and, late last year, won another legal battle after a man claiming to be a woman sued him for refusing to create a blue and pink “gender transition” cake.