Indianapolis Bakery Won't Serve Gay Students

Looking for some cupcakes or cookies with rainbow frosting on them, to celebrate National Coming Out Day? Don't head to Just Cookies in Indianapolis. The bakery, inside Indianapolis' City Market, refused to accept an order from a gay student group at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Why?

According to the man who owns the bakery, rainbow cupcakes and cookies celebrating LGBT pride violate the values of the bakery.

"I explained we're a family-run business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought maybe it was best not to do that," said co-owner David Stockton to a local Fox television station. He then added that it's his bakery's decision to decide what is obscene. Apparently rainbow colors fall under that label. "We have our values, and you know, some things ... for instance, if someone wants a cookie with an obscenity, well, we're not going to do that."

All of a sudden making cookies and cupcakes for a gay student group is against family values? So much for customer service, and so much for making a good impression on those daughters, who were just shown by their parents that discrimination can come in the form of baked goods. Send the Indianapolis City Market a message that it should engage all of its vendors, including Just Cookies, to make sure that no customers are discriminated against. Their mission is to enrich "the city's economy, expands its educational options, enhances its culture." Refusing to serve LGBT customers doesn't do any of that.

Customers have also started to take to other social media channels to complain about the bakery's actions. On Urban Spoon, several users blasted the bakery for its actions.

"Having been a previous customer (fortunately the clerk didn't inquire about my sexual orientation at the time) I can say that my experience with their product was on par with the treatment of an entire segment of society - POOR," wrote user Eric Benge. "Last time I checked, my money is as green as the heterosexual community."

Pretty good point there with that last statement. You'd have to bet that the cookie order for National Coming Out Day would have earned Just Cookies a nice haul. Now, the negative publicity from turning down a group of students who just wanted rainbow baked goods could just paint the bakery in a thoroughly negative light.

"[The students] weren't asking to petition for anything, they just wanted cupcakes for an event," said Rebecca Scherpelz, a friend of an IUPUI student, to the local Fox station.

Here's hoping this can be a teachable moment. Maybe this can be the impetus for the Indianapolis City Market to make sure that all of its vendors are serving every eligible customer. Sure, it's easy to see the bakery owner's point about having the right to turn down orders they consider offensive. But rainbow cookies? Could anything be more harmless?

The students did find another bakery to place their National Coming Out Day order. Good for them, and here's hoping their celebration is both successful, educational and tasty.

Photo credit: Aldo Fonticiella