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Whole Foods is being sued by an Austin minister who claims that the grocery store gave him a cake with a slur against gays.
>>UPDATE: Whole Foods taking legal action against cake accuser, releases video
In a video posted on YouTube, the Rev. Jordan Brown says he ordered a cake from the Whole Foods flagship store on Lamar Boulevard with the personalized message, "Love Wins." Instead, he says, the cake was delivered with the message "Love Wins Fag."
Brown, who is openly gay, said he reported the incident to a Whole Foods employee but was told that the store did nothing wrong and no action would be taken.
Whole Foods issued a statement on Monday: “The team member wrote ‘Love Wins’ at the top of the cake as requested by the guest and that’s exactly how the cake was packaged and sold at the store. Our team members do not accept or design bakery orders that include language or images that are offensive. Whole Foods Market has a zero tolerance policy for discrimination.”
Kaplan Law Firm, whom Brown hired on Monday to represent him in a lawsuit against Whole Foods, said it contatcted Whole Foods’ corporate office on Friday but did not receive a “substantive response for more than three days” and filed the suit.
“Pastor Brown never asked for this to happen. He continues to be overwhelmed by the feelings of pain, anguish and humiliation because of this incident,” Brown’s lawyer, Austin Kaplan, said in a statement on Monday. “He frequently shopped at Whole Foods, which makes this all the more shocking and disappointing."
"What really concerns him is knowing that unless some action is taken, this kind of thing could happen again, and that someone else might have to go through a similarly excruciating experience.”
Brown is a founder of the Church of Open Doors, a non-denominational Christian church at 1620 E. Riverside Drive in southeast Austin.
Austin-based Kaplan Law Firm recently represented Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton in their successful federal lawsuit to secure a same-sex marriage license from Hood County, Texas.
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