Supporters of Christian cake designer Jack Phillips have started a fundraising campaign to help ease his financial woes after a court ruled he has to create cakes for same-sex weddings despite his religious beliefs.
The faith-based crowdfunding site
"Continue to Give" had collected $12,000 of its $200,000 goal by Monday.
Phillips says his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., lost more than a third of its receipts since he stopped making cakes while his case made its way through courts, the
Daily Signal reports.
A Colorado appeals court ruled last Thursday Phillips had violated the state's discrimination law by refusing to make a cake for a gay couple's wedding in 2012.
According to the Daily Signal, Phillips' business had been the target of threats and harassment since his refusal – and after losing the first legal round with Colorado’s civil rights agency in 2013, Phillips stopped making all wedding cakes, Phillips' brother-in-law, Jim Sander, tells the Daily Signal.
In his argument before the appeals panel, Phillips argued that making him design a cake celebrating same-sex marriage violated his First Amendment right to freedom of religion and to free speech. The court disagreed.
"We hope it will relieve some of the financial pressure on Jack," Sander said of the fundraising campaign, The Daily Signal reports. "A business that has a 10 percent loss is a big deal in the Wall Street Journal. So a 40 percent loss is a big hit."
Phillips' case comes in the wake of an
Oregon Labor Commissioner's fine of $135,000 in July against Christian bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein for their refusal to make a cake for a lesbian wedding.
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