Sweet Cakes Bakers Still Actively Fundraising, Cash Pouring In
A same-sex couple, not the Kleins, were the victims in the Sweet Cakes By Melissa case. The couple has not received a penny, the Kleins are still raking in the dough.
When Aaron and Melissa Klein refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, then followed up that illegal act by posting the couple’s home address on Facebook – leading to death threats and attacks so heinous the same-sex couple almost lost their foster children – no one imagined that the Kleins would be viewed as the “victims” and the recipients of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And yet, they are.
Oregon’s decision against the Kleins stated its “Final Order awards $60,000 in damages to Laurel Bowman-Cryer and $75,000 in damages to Rachel Bowman-Cryer for emotional suffering stemming directly from unlawful discrimination.”
Not for refusing to bake a cake, as many right wing and even mainstream media sites falsely state.
The Kleins’ actions caused a nightmare for one family, and a boondoggle for themselves so lucrative it might reach one million dollars.
On Monday, the Sweet Cakes By Melissa owners finally paid the damages ordered by the State of Oregon, but the victims who were to receive the $135,000 won’t see a penny of it until the Kleins exhaust all appeals. That could be years.Â
LOOK:Â Almost Everything You’ve Heard About The Anti-Gay Sweet Cakes Wedding Cake Case Is (Probably) Wrong
Meanwhile, the Kleins continue to play the victim, and continue their lucrative fundraising efforts.
In July, NCRM looked at all the various fundraising efforts the Kleins had created, and conservatively estimated they had raked in over $400,000. Many estimates today put that at about $500,000, but they haven’t been updated, nor could they include the donations the Kleins received via their P.O. Box address and from at least two other religious charities.
On one donations page alone, at Continue To Give, 61 people on Tuesday donated to the Kleins. Some of the donations are anonymous, and some of the dollar amounts are concealed, but just that one fundraising page has earned the Kleins about $411,000 from 8857 donors. That’s an impressive average of about $46 per person.
One donor, a businessman, yesterday wrote that his “companies unequivocally oppose the sin of being gay or lesbian.”
“I do however respect their right to be who they are and do what they want to do,” he added. “God gives us all choice and will not violate that. But he does that we love our neighbor and I love all people. This is an important step. Hopefully the first step in the fight for Christians to take their freedom back.”
Another wrote, “I pray that others who believe in the Freedom of Religion will continue to give to help this family out. First it will be Christians who will be targeted by LGBT organizations ( who support pederasts ) then it will be the Jews, Muslims and anyone else who refuses to bow to the homosexual agenda. It’s not about equality folks, its about power !! God bless the Kleins.”
And another from yesterday said, “Keep the faith… your not alone…we will retake our nation…you have waken many people up to the fact of the takeover… Now it is our turn to take what has been taken and more..”
The Kleins’ GoFundMe page, before the company closed it down, netted the bakers about $60,000.Â
Christian evangelical activist Franklin Graham has been hosting a fundraising campaign for the Kleins via his Samaritan’s Purse charity, although he has not revealed how much he’s raised for them.
The Kleins, via their Facebook page, are promoting other fundraisers too, like one by the Lynchwood Church of God, and their P.O. box address for those who wish to send them cash or checks directly.Â
At this point there’s no way to calculate the vast fortune the Klein’s anti-gay hate has netted them. They say, “we are having to be cautious and wise in our use of the funds raised on our behalf because of potential tax liability and other variables over which we have no control.”
One week ago today on their Facebook page – from which supporters can directly donate to their Continue To Give account – the Melissa Klein wrote,
“Im not able to share what all is going on with our case. But I will share that its getting harder and harder. I never imagined going through a struggle this hard. Im doing my best to keep my eyes on Jesus and trust in Him. Please be praying for us. Please pray for trust, strength, wisdom, and peace. I know that He is only molding us. I thank you all that have lifted our family in prayer ♡♡♡.”
Â
EARLIER:
Watch: Oregon Bakers Mock, Laugh At And ‘Pray For’ Their ‘Ignorant’ Critics By Reading Mean Tweets
Same-Sex Couple In Sweet Cakes By Melissa Case Received Death Threats
GoFundMe Cancels Sweet Cakes By Melissa Fundraising Campaign, Bakers Blame ‘Satan’
Final Verdict In Oregon Bakers Case Comes To $135,000 – Right Wing Furious Over ‘Gay Fascism Tax’
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Image via The Heritage Foundation/YouTube
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
