American actress Candace Cameron Bure has come out in defense of an Oregon bakery that has been ordered to pay $135,000 for refusing to bake a gay wedding cake for a lesbian couple. She made her views known on ABC's daytime talk show "The View" on Wednesday.
The video, which ABC posted on YouTube, showed 39-year-old Bure and show co-host Raven-Symone debating on whether the bakery violated any anti-discrimination laws. Symone first made the case that the Christian-owned bakery engaged in discriminatory conduct similar to what happened during the 1960s civil rights movement.
"The Oregon law bars businesses from discriminating against sexual orientation, race, disability, age or religion, and to me, it's the same exact thing that they did back in the day saying that black people couldn't do certain things because it's my 'religious belief,'" Symone said.
Bure contended that Symone was "comparing apples to oranges" in this case.
"I don't think this is discrimination at all. This is about freedom of association," Bure said. "It's about constitutional rights. It's about First Amendment rights. We do still have the right to still choose who we associate with."
The "Fuller House" star then went on to explain her understanding of the case.
"[The bakery] didn't refuse to bake the cake because of [the couple's] sexual orientation," Bure said. "In fact, they baked cakes for them previously. They had a problem with the actual ceremony because that - the ceremony - is what conflicted with their religious beliefs. They are saying that they stand for marriage between a man and a woman."
Symone, who has previously outed herself as a lesbian to legendary daytime show host Oprah Winfrey in 2014, tried to interrupt Bure.
"I refuse to associate with you right now," Symone said.
According to Beatrice Verhoeven of The Wrap, "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg spoke out in defense of Symone's views. Bure contended that the bakers were not discriminating against sexual orientation, which Symone countered.
"Sexual orientation goes hand in hand with marriage in that situation," Symone said. "If it was a man and a woman, and one was black and one was white, and they discriminated against them, we could also go back into the Constitution that's had many amendments saying that they should take care of this family as well."
Show co-host Nicole Wallace stepped in and elaborated on what could happen based on what happened to the Oregon bakery.
"This debate is going to play out over the next 18 months," Wallace said. "Hobby Lobby was the Supreme Court case this year that said that if you have a business, you are Christian, and it violates your beliefs, you don't have to pay for your employees' birth control pills. There is some legal precedent."
Wallace thought that the case surrounding the Oregon bakery would be appealed, possibly to the highest court in the land.
"We may see this in the Supreme Court, because this is a very emotional issue," Wallace said, highlighting the tension between Bure and Symone. "There are emotions on both sides, but the law, I think, at this point, is a little up in the air."
Bure made one more point before the clip ended.
"I really wish we could do as a society, as a culture, as a country, is to respect that we have opposing views," Bure said.
According to Verhoeven, the owners of the Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery, Aaron and Melissa Klein, were ordered by the state of Oregon to pay $135,000 to Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer after refusing to make a cake for their same-sex wedding. As devout Christians, the Kleins believed that marriage is between one man and one woman.
"We will not give up this fight, and we will not be silenced," the Kleins wrote on Facebook. "We stand for God's truth, God's word and freedom for all Americans."
