Baker who took anti-LGBTQ+ fight to Supreme Court asks judge to let him refuse trans people

Jack Phillips, the Christian baker who fought and won a “religious freedom” Supreme Court case after refusing to serve a gay couple, is challenging a recent court loss.

Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, is appealing a 2021 ruling that saw him fined for discrimination after he refused to bake a cake in the colours of the trans flag.

He is being represented by Jake Warner of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), designed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Warner appeared in a Colorado appeal court on Wednesday (5 October), arguing that to force Phillips to bake a cake signifying a message that contradicts his beliefs is the same as violating his right to free speech.

The original case was brought against the cake artist by Autumn Scardina, a transgender lawyer based in Denver, Colorado, who requested a cake in the colours of the trans flag from Masterpiece Cakeshop. It refused to make her the cake.

In June 2021 a court found that Phillips denied Scardina “goods and services because of her transgender status”.

Warner accused Scardina of attempting to “test” Phillips with her cake request.

“In this case, an activist attorney demanded that Jack create expressive cakes to test him and ‘correct the errors’ of his thinking,” he said.

PinkNews