A GoFundMe page that raised almost $110,000 in less than 10 hours is no more. It was created to help an Oregon bakery that received a massive fine after refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding in 2013.
KGW-TV reported Rachel Bowman-Cryer testified she was humiliated after the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa refused to sell her a cake, citing religious beliefs.
A judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries ordered owners Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 to Bowman-Cryer and her wife after the couple filed a discrimination lawsuit.
A third-party started a GoFundMe page for the Kleins to help them pay the fine.
That page has since been taken down, but WND was able to capture screengrabs before that happened. They show more than $100,000 had been raised within eight hours of the account being set up.
The Stream reports it was a competitor of the Kleins who contacted GoFundMe and alerted them Sweet Cakes by Melissa was "(fundraising) to pay their penalty."
What's interesting is GoFundMe allowed an account for an Indiana pizzeria that refused to cater a same-sex wedding to remain open on its site.
The Christian Post reports GoFundMe differentiated between the two by saying with the pizzeria, "no laws were violated. ... However, the subjects of the 'Support Sweet Cakes By Melissa' campaign have been formally charged by local authorities."
The bakery wrote on its Facebook account it doesn't believe its account violated GoFundMe's terms of agreement and is working to get the page put back up.
In the meantime, Sweet Cakes by Melissa has set up an account on a different fundraising site.
