Wedding cakes are a beautiful and delicious part of many nuptials, but in the case of one California cake designer, the festive dessert has become a weapon against her in the fight for religious freedom.

Tastries Bakery is a local bakeshop in Bakersfield, California. Owner Cathy Miller creates artisanal cakes for people from all walks of life. Operating under the name Cathy’s Creations, Inc., Cathy is a committed Christian, so when a lesbian couple asked her to design a wedding cake for the two of them, she referred them to another baker. Cathy’s sincere religious beliefs hold that marriage is intended to be between one man and one woman. Her Biblical faith makes it impossible for her to participate with good conscience in the celebration of a homosexual union.

Within 45 minutes of Cathy Miller’s polite explanation to the two women, Tastries Bakery was inundated with hostile phone calls and emails. When the issue was publicized, it was discovered that the same two women had aggressively approached other wedding service providers in an attempt to find additional businesses that would refuse to serve them.

The behavior of the two women and the stories that have come out surrounding the events make it very easy to believe that this was a deliberate “set up” and that the women were seeking a lawsuit. Cathy Miller’s Christianity was obvious to the public. Any potential customer walking into Tastries could easily observe the religious symbols and scriptural references throughout the shop. I believe that she was deliberately targeted in this circumstance.

Even though it quickly became apparent that the women who approached Cathy were really looking for a lawsuit rather than a wedding cake, the state of California took up their cause.

Cathy Miller has been the subject of two separate lawsuits filed, not just by the two lesbian women who seemingly set her up, but by the California Department of Fair Employment Housing.

The legal action against Cathy’s Creations, Inc., by the Department of Fair Housing and Employment was filed under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which provides protection from discrimination by business establishments on the basis of race, or ethnicity, or religion.

Ironically, both the act and the department are supposed to protect people's religious rights, but that has not been the case for Cathy Miller.

Like most artists, Cathy believes that creating something custom, such as a wedding cake, sends the distinct message that you're celebrating that event and its participants – and giving it credibility - by gracing it with your uniquely designed work of art.

The artisan cakes that Cathy, and others like her, create are incredible. They're gorgeous, take many hours to put together, and they're completely made to order for a particular occasion. If the women who began the legal action against Cathy Miller really wanted a designer cake, they could have ordered a beautiful cake and added their own cake topper with two female figurines rather than try to compel Cathy’s Creations to violate the owner’s religious beliefs. If those women were not deliberately pursuing litigation, they could have taken Cathy’s referral to another baker or shopped at any of the other dozens of custom cake bakeries in the area.

What if the women had wanted Cathy to put a noose on top of the cake and depict a lynching? Everybody would acknowledge that as wrong. What if they sought to have a dessert bearing satanic symbols or something that depicted horrific violence or gore? Our client would not be forced to fill that order. You cannot make people speak a message that they're not comfortable with for whatever reason. Our Constitution guarantees that.

This action against Tastries Bakery was clearly not about getting a wedding cake. These women, and those who may have been acting in concert with them, were seemingly attempting to force others to accept, approve of, and celebrate their lifestyle. If you, like Cathy Miller, don't agree with them, then they are going to seek to punish you and try to drive you out of business.

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One of the witnesses against Cathy even said:

“I hope we drive her into bankruptcy.”

That’s vicious and malicious.

This is not a matter of tolerance or of civil rights for gay people. The law of land affirms that if two women wish to marry each other – or two men – then legally they have the right to do so.

But what about Cathy Miller’s rights? The United States Constitution protects her right to use her God-given talents in free expression and her right to practice her deeply and sincerely held religious beliefs.

This case is still going on. There was previously a motion for preliminary injunction. We won the first round. We had a judge who affirmed our reasoning that creating a custom wedding cake is a form of protected speech. You can't force someone to use their talents to make something they disagree with. Anyone who wishes to enter Tastries Bakery and buy a pre-made cake can do so. There is no restriction and no discrimination. But to force someone to design a wedding cake that supports something they vehemently oppose – that’s wrong. Freedom of expression and freedom of religion are guaranteed rights of every American. I believe that we have a very good chance of prevailing.