Colorado baker Jack Phillips once sued for turning down gay couple calls gender transition cake case a 'trap'
Colorado baker Jack Philips says he was being led into "a trap" as he refused to bake a cake celebrating gender transition because it went against his religious beliefs. The same baker made headlines last year when the Supreme Court ruled in his favor after his refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony.
It has now emerged that on the same day that the Supreme Court agreed to hear Phillips’ case regarding the 2018 dispute, his wife received a call from a transgender attorney asking Philips to make a birthday cake in celebration of the person's "gender transition", the Daily Wire reported. But despite his past court victory, the state of Colorado went after Philips again. This “prompted Phillips to file a lawsuit against the state, saying it had violated his First Amendment right to practice his faith and his right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.”
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The Christian baker recently discussed the ordeal with Fox News. “My experience this week has been trying, at best,” Phillips told the outlet. “We’ve closed down our bakery just so we could be in this trial. My wife had to testify, my daughter had to, I had to.”
“This case started the day the Supreme Court decided they were going to hear our case. It was a very busy, very crazy day at the shop,” he explained. “In the middle of all of this chaos, we got a phone call from an attorney in Denver asking us to create a cake pink on the inside with blue icing on the outside.” Phillips told Fox News that he was told “it was two colors, a color scheme, a combination, designed to celebrate a gender transition.”
“We told the customer, this caller, that this cake was a cake we couldn’t create because of the message; the caller turned around and sued us,” he continued. “This customer came to us intentionally to get us to create a cake or deny creating a cake that went against our religious beliefs.” Phillips added, “This customer had been tracking our case for multiple years. This case was just a request to get us to fall into a trap.”
Speaking to Fox News in November 2020, Phillips revealed he had spoken to Autumn Scardina, the transgender person who requested the cake. According to him, “if the case were rejected or dismissed, that they would be back the next day to request another cake order and then sue me and charge me again.”
Scardina was asked at the trial this week whether the move was “some sort of test” or a “setup”. “I don’t like that phrase. I think it’s got a negative connotation. Nor do I associate it was a test, it wasn’t a test,” Scardina said at the trial. “More of a challenge of the veracity. It was more a calling of somebody’s bluff.”
“I wanted Mr Phillips to be telling the truth," Scardina added. "I think he’s a good man. I think he is a good Christian; and I think his beliefs are noble, valid, are entitled to protection. I believe that he is being genuine in what he feels is his truth.” According to Phillips, however, the case has had a detrimental effect on his personal and professional life. He now hopes “this case is so clear that I am being forced to create against my beliefs, clear enough, that this initial ruling would be in our favor, and it stops right here.”
