NASHVILLE — There are new details in a debate pitting religious freedom against discrimination, surrounding the question of whether a Tennessee baker should have to make a cake for a gay couple's wedding.
Brandi Ray from Dickson County in Tennessee first posted a text conversation on the Hip Dickson Facebook page last weekend. In it, the owner of Susie's Sweets, baker Susie Dennison, tells Ray: "I truly wish you the best but after realizing that your union will be of the same sex, I cannot with my spiritual conviction and beliefs, do your cake!"
Since then, Ray says, someone else has offered to bake a wedding cake for her.
And she says she understands why the baker said no.
"I understand that beliefs are important to hold on to, and I applaud her for sticking to those," she said.
The U.S. Supreme Court stopped short of issuing a broad ruling on a similar case out of Colorado last year, leaving the possibility of a case like Ray's to head up to the court again.
But Ray says she has no plans of filing a lawsuit.
