GoFundMe updates terms after pulling fundraiser for shuttered Christian bakery

Brett T. | 8:12 PM on April 30, 2015

You might recall when the Christian-owned Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana, closed due to threats after the owner told a reporter that she would not agree to cater a gay wedding if asked, although she would never deny service based on a customer’s sexual orientation or religion. (Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong even managed to work in an awkward and unfunny dig at “Indiana pizza” during her routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.)

Supporters set up a spectacularly successful fundraiser on GoFundMe to keep the pizzeria afloat while the dust settled. It was so successful, in fact, an employee of CBS6 in Richmond, Va., with no evidence whatsoever, reported the fundraiser for fraud — “just in case.”

A similar fundraiser was set up to help Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of “Sweet Cakes by Melissa,” to pay a judgment of $135,000. The Oregon bakery closed in 2013 after two lesbians filed a civil rights complaint, citing “emotional, mental, and physical suffering” and claiming they felt “mentally raped” when the Kleins refused to bake them a wedding cake.

#SweetCakes Christian bakers fined $135000 call govt 'pretty darn scary' http://t.co/Vb8JKuWj9F #tcot #tlot pic.twitter.com/t4UlNgv9ne

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) April 28, 2015

GoFundMe has since pulled the fundraiser and, as Kelsey Harkness of The Daily Signal reports today, changed its terms and conditions.

.@gofundme made a major policy change today in wake of shutting down #SweetCakes & florist. http://t.co/DB2sjYtDec pic.twitter.com/qvihBybylT

— Kelsey Bolar (Harkness) (@kelseybolar) April 30, 2015

Harkness writes:

Instead of prohibiting “campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts”—as it used to—GoFundMe now bans “campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts.”

…

The difference in the wording of the policy is significant because neither the Christian bakers—Aaron and Melissa Klein—nor the Washington florist [70-year-old Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers] who also had her account shut down broke any criminal laws.