Ind. Bakery Refuses Order for Rainbow Cupcakes

A student-run gay group approached an Indianapolis bakery for rainbow-colored goodies--and was turned away. The reason? "[W]e're a family-run business," said the shop's co-owner.

The student group from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis was looking to place an order for rainbow-themed cupcakes or cookies to celebrate National Coming Out Day, which takes place every Oct. 11, reported local news channel Fox 59.

"We're right on the cusp of being equal with anyone else, I don't know why they would do that," Shan Parker, a student, told the news station.

"They weren't asking to petition for anything, they were just ordering cupcakes for an event," Rebecca Scherpelz said.

The bakery is called just Cookies. Co-owner Lilly Stockton told Fox 59, "Look around, we don't have cupcakes." However, Stockton also said that she had spoken with someone regarding an order of rainbow-colored cookies. "I don't have enough colors to do that," Stockton told the news crew.

Stockton's husband David offered a different explanation for why the bakery did not accommodate the order. "I explained we're a family-run business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought maybe it was best not to do that," he told Fox 59.

The school told the media that there would be no formal complaint against the bakery, and spoke of diversity honoring the sensitivities of everyone. Another bakery has been engaged to provide the refreshments on Oct. 11.

The rainbow has been adopted by the GLBT community as a symbol of diversity, usually in the form of a flag. The first rainbow flag used in conjunction with gay events, according to Wikipedia, was created in 1978 and flown at the Pride parade in San Francisco that year. The colors of the rainbow have been assigned symbolic meanings, such as "Life" for the color red, "Healing" for orange, and "Spirituality" for violet.

Some religious denominations regard the rainbow motif as emblematic of a covenant between humanity and God. According to scripture the rainbow is a sign of God's promise to Noah never to destroy humanity by means of a flood.

Rainbow flags have been used by others since at least 1924, including Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba, peace groups and at least one Jewish group.