Anti-Gay Indianapolis Bakery Shutters After Controversy

In cases of anti-gay discrimination, sometimes the market takes care of itself.

As the debate over the recently signed Religious Freedom Restoration Act continues in Indiana, and one business declares publicly that it won't provide pizzas for gay weddings (without intended irony), the tale of one recently defunct bakery in the Hoosier State capital may prove an encouraging theory of economic Darwinism: Discriminate and you'll go out of business.

In early 2014, the 111 Cakery in downtown Indianapolis refused to make a cake for a couple once they learned that it would be served at gay commitment ceremony. This occurred less than ten months before Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage was officially overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Addicting Info notes that according to 111 Cakery's proprietors Randy and Trish McGrath, both devote Baptists, they "just didn't want to be party to a commitment ceremony" because it was "a commitment to sin."

"As artists, we have to find inspiration to create something special for our clients," Randy told Fox 59. "When asked to do a cake for an occasion or with a theme that's in opposition with our faith? It's just hard for us. We struggle with that."

Predictably, this set off a firestorm on social media that caused McGrath to shut down the Cakery's Facebook page.

Social conservatives who supported the McGrath's choice to discriminate flocked to the bakery despite a boycott from local customers. Like Chick-fil-A experienced during it's "appreciation day" in 2013, 111 Cakery saw a significant bump in business, but as Addicting Info points out the "anti-gay stimulus package" was not to last. By the end of 2014, Trish McGrath said that she was "taking a break from working." That "break" turned out to be permanent when in late February 2015, Randy announced that the bakery was shuttering for good.

Geography may have had more than a bit to play in the bigoted bakers' demise. 111 Cakery was located in the heart of Indianapolis' gayborhood within quick walking distance from three gay bars.

You can't have discrimination in the wrong location.