PolitiFact: Glenn Beck talks ‘Duck Dynasty,’ wedding vendors

Radio host Glenn Beck defended him on grounds of freedom of speech.

If the country truly valued “equality and diversity,” Beck argued, Robertson would be allowed to express his opinion without being punished for it. He urged Robertson’s family not to back down and said his network, TheBlaze, would welcome them into the fold because they want “diversity of thought.”

“If you think that it isn’t about anything but marriage and equality, you’re mistaken. It’s not about equality,” Beck said. “If it’s about equality and it’s about diversity, then you would allow people a different opinion. A different opinion. No, no, no, we don’t have different opinions now.

“You are forcing people in business to make wedding cakes,” he said.

Beck’s wording is not explicit, but we think we know what he was referencing (his people did not get back to us).

We wanted to investigate if people are forced to make wedding cakes against their will and what those cases mean more broadly.

There are two high-profile cases of bakers citing Christian beliefs when they refused to provide wedding cakes for a gay couple who wanted to celebrate their marriage.

We’ll focus on the one with a recent judge’s order.

One summer day in 2012, a gay couple stopped inside Masterpiece Cakeshop in the Denver area seeking a wedding cake to celebrate their wedding in Massachusetts. Once the owner learned what the wedding cake would be for, he told the would-be customers that preparing a cake for them would go against his Christian beliefs, according to court documents. He said, “I’ll make you birthday cakes, shower cakes, sell you cookies and brownies, I just don’t make cakes for same-sex weddings.”

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission on the couple’s behalf. On Dec. 6, 2013, administrative law Judge Robert Spencer ruled in favor of the couple.

Pertinent here, the judge noted, the state amended its public accommodation law to add “sexual orientation” as a protected class that cannot be discriminated against by businesses that are open to the public.

Spencer said the cake shop must “cease and desist from discriminating” against gay couples or face financial penalties for refusing to make wedding cakes for gay couples in the future.

The judge rejected the cake shop’s argument that providing a cake for the couple would have conveyed support for their marriage.

If the cake shop defies the judge’s order, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission could seek court action that could include “issuance of contempt citation, potential fines and imprisonment for offending the dignity of the court,” a spokeswoman said.

A spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian nonprofit that defended the baker in court, said it would appeal the order.

ADF spokesman Greg Scott said there are many more examples of “government intrusion on conscience, in which an arm of the state tells you comply with the government-decreed morality or face the consequences.”

In Oregon, a state investigation into a bakery refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple remains open. Elsewhere, a Washington wedding florist was sued for refusing to provide floral arrangements for a gay couple’s wedding.

The U.S. Supreme Court could decide on a discrimination complaint against a New Mexico-based wedding photographer who declined to photograph a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony. The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled against the photographer.

So what does it mean?

Laws that protect customers from being discriminated against because of sexual orientation do not exist for the whole country. The ruling by the Colorado administrative law judge was limited to Colorado, and the same goes for other cases in other states so far.

“But really, I would say that the (Colorado) decision is just affirming a much broader, long-standing legal principle that religion doesn’t give anyone a reason to discriminate,” said Amanda Goad, an ACLU attorney involved in the Colorado baker’s case.

Twenty-one states have public accommodation laws similar to the one in Colorado, including California, New York and Oregon, according to the Human Rights Campaign. That means clear protections do not exist in 29 states, such as Florida and Texas, though some cities have implemented their own ordinances, Goad said.

“If there’s no public accommodation law that covers sexual orientation, then no one has any obligation, religious or not, to serve anybody,” said Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia professor of law and religious studies. “The gay couples only have a claim if there is a law in place that gives them a claim.”

Just because it isn’t happening in every state does not mean it is not happening, argued Eugene Volokh, a UCLA School of Law professor.

Our ruling

Incensed by A&E’s response to its opinionated “Duck Dynasty” star, Beck lamented the country’s lack of appreciation for “diversity of thought,” saying Robertson is entitled to say what he wants in accordance with his freedoms of speech and religion. Even wedding cake-makers are feeling the same pressure.

Beck did not get into details about either bakery case on his show. But he should have clarified that many states do not have the same protections for sexual orientation in their public accommodation laws, so it’s less clear if businesses in those states could be compelled to make cake if they had personal objections.

We rate this claim Mostly True.