Attorney for Colo. Baker Calls Gay Sensitivity Training 'Vague,' 'Lousy,' 'Pointless'

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission wants a suburban Denver baker to have a little class -- a little class in sensitivity training, that is. The baker's lawyer has other things to say.

On Friday, May 30, the seven-member Colorado Civil Rights Commission upheld a court decision from December 2013 that Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in the Denver suburb of Lakewood violated the states civil rights law when he refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple in 2012.

According to the Christian Post, the commission handed down an order on Phillips requiring him to attend sensitivity training.

"The [sensitivity] training is really for the entire staff and it's for him to conduct training for his staff. It's kind of vague. He just has to report that he's done it. It's very vague," said Phillips' attorney, Nicolle Martin in an interview with the Christian Post, adding that it was "a lousy order that is vague and lacking specificity."

Martin asserted that the sensitivity training was pointless, because her client does not discriminate against gays.

The case stems from a 2012 incident where Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig approached Phillips to make a cake for their wedding celebration. Philips declined on the grounds that it violated his religious beliefs. In December 2013, an administrative judge found that his religious objections to the practice did not trump the state's anti-discrimination statutes.

According to CBS News, the decision prompted Phillips to decide he would no longer make any wedding cakes. He said he would be fine selling cupcakes for a birthday party for someone who is gay but added, "I don't want to participate in a same-sex wedding."

In addition to sensitivity training, the commission also ordered Philips to submit reports about customers he reuses to serve.

"The order says he must report on any orders -- whether it be a cake or a brownie or cookies -- turned away and the reason for doing so," said Martin, who in her interview with Christian Post claimed the commissioners had, at one point, suggested that Phillips provide a log of every single transaction highlighting the sexual orientation of the customer.

According to Colorado.gov, the seven members who serve on the voluntary commission are "selected from across the state to represent both political parties. Two represent business (one of whom represents small business), two represent government, and three represent the community at-large. At least four of the members are members of groups of people who have been or who might be discriminated against because of disability, race, creed, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, marital status, religion or age,"

The current commission is made up of three democrats, one republican and three unaffiliated voters.