Wasserman Schultz on Bakers Fined $135K Over Wedding Cake: ‘You Shouldn’t Be Able to Turn People Away’

David Brody / July 08, 2015

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the marriage debate is over.

“The marriage equality decision is settled. Love is love and now everyone in America enjoys the protection of the United States Constitution when it comes to who they choose to marry legally,” Wasserman Schultz told The Daily Signal.

She also weighed in on the religious liberty debate. “That doesn’t mean that churches and religious institutions have to conduct same-sex marriages and it doesn’t mean that religious institutions aren’t able to practice their own values. But, in this country, we do not allow people to discriminate.”

Last week, Aaron and Melissa Klein were ordered to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to a lesbian couple because they refused to bake them a wedding cake based on their religious convictions. “You shouldn’t be able to turn people away based on who they are,” said Wasserman Schultz.

Wasserman Schultz says a distinction must be made between what private business owners do and an actual religious organization or body. “I think Americans make a distinction between protecting the First Amendment rights for religious organizations or religiously affiliated organization and being able to discriminate, broadly, simply because of one individual who owns a business and their own values and their being able to impose those values on either their employers or their customers.”