Whole Foods is fighting back against allegations made against it by an openly gay pastor in Austin, Texas, who claimed that he received a homophobic cake.
The original story dates back to last week when Jordan Brown, the pastor of Austin's Church of Open Doors, said that he ordered a cake from Whole Foods meant to read "Love Wins," a slogan associated with the movement to legalize same-sex marriage. However, upon picking up the cake on April 14, he noticed that the cake had the word "F-g" added in the center.
"When I got into my vehicle, I looked inside and saw they had wrote 'Love Wins F-g' on it," Brown said, holding a receipt he that said was from the cake. "You can see it nice and clear. Also, it is still in a sealed box. As you see, I have not opened up this box yet."
Brown said that he contacted Whole Foods to complain, and at first, an employee was "extremely apologetic," but soon another employee called to say "his employee did not do this."
The response left Brown confused, angry, and most importantly, ready to take legal action. And so he did with the help of Austin's Kaplan Law Firm, which filed a lawsuit alleging intentional inflection of emotional distress on his behalf.
"Pastor Jordan spent the remainder of the day in tears," the suit read. "He was and is extremely upset."
"The potential for racial, sexual, religious, and anti-LGBT slurs to be written on personalized cakes is high, and Whole Foods knew or should have known that slurs or harassing messages could be written on cakes and then presented to a customer without any oversight or prior warning," the suit added.
As this unfolded, the incident made the rounds on social media and soon went viral, with many arguing that the homophobic cake is a hoax. They questioned why it took so long for the pastor to notice the slur and accused him of altering the cake.
"Sorry, I can't believe you bought a cake with a custom message and did not see it through the window," one YouTube commenter wrote. "Feels like a scam. I'm straight and they call me a f-g all the time. No big deal. Who did it? I think you did it."
“That cake was obviously altered,” a purported cake decorator said on the Church of Open Door's Facebook page. “As a cake decorator I spotted the covered up ‘purple’ icing immediately, on the original lettering that said ‘LOVE WINS’ The piping on the ADDED ON word ‘F—G’ wasn’t even the same TIP size as the original lettering … He obviously thought media coverage would be in his favor! Probably thought he would get rich and famous!”
Whole Foods, who launched its own investigation into the matter, echoed those sentiments.
Announcing a countersuit against Brown and his counsel on Tuesday, the suit claimed he "intentionally, knowingly and falsely accused Whole Foods and its employees of writing the homophobic slur...on a custom made cake that he ordered from WFM's Lamar Store in Austin."
"After a deeper investigation of Mr. Brown's claim, we believe his accusations are fraudulent and we intend to take legal action against both Mr. Brown and his attorney," the company wrote in a statement that laid out its case as follows:
- "Our bakery team member wrote 'Love Wins' at the top of the cake, which was visible to Mr. Brown through the clear portion of the packaging. That’s exactly how the cake was packaged and sold at the store. Whole Foods Market has a strict policy that prohibits team members from accepting or designing bakery orders that include language or images that are offensive."
- "Mr. Brown admits that he was in sole possession and control of the cake until he posted his video, which showed the UPC label on the bottom and side of the box."
- "After reviewing our security footage of Mr. Brown, it’s clear that the UPC label was in fact on top of the cake box, not on the side of the package. This is evident as the cashier scans the UPC code on top of the box."
The lawsuit seeks at least $100,000 in damages.
The statement was accompanied with security footage that shows a man resembling Brown paying at the register at the bottom right, which an be seen below:
