From the desk of PA Family President Michael Geer
Nearly seven years ago, I joined around 200 PA Family friends who support religious freedom on a bus trip from Lancaster, PA to Washington, DC in support of Jack Phillips, the cake artist from Colorado who was being sued for living out his faith and convictions.
I had the honor to speak at the 2017 rally outside of the Supreme Court and I remember being interrupted because Jack was walking out from the oral arguments at the same time. I also remember my wife – who joined me on this trip – being interviewed by multiple media outlets, including National Public Radio.

Although Jack Phillips earned a victory in that case, the persecution continued with multiple lawsuits filed against him, keeping him in the court system for the past 12 years. Thankfully, the most recent case against him was dismissed last week by the Colorado Supreme Court.
Jack Phillips was a special guest at our Friends of the Family banquet in 2018, and all who met or heard him that evening saw what a meek and genuine man of deep faith he is – the kind of man most anyone would want as a neighbor or a friend.
Ironically, after his victory at the Supreme Court earlier that year, a cake order by our friends at the Alliance Defending Freedom to celebrate the occasion was turned down by a bakery in Washington, DC. At our banquet, here’s how Jack responded to this decision:
“They didn’t turn away me. They turned away the message of that cake. That’s the situation with our cake. I serve everybody who comes into my shop. I don’t care what their sexual orientation is, what their gender identity is. But I can’t create every cake that people ask me to create. In this case, two young men asked me to create a cake that used marriage in a way that goes against the core teachings of my faith. I told them I’d sell them anything else in my shop…that’s why they sued us and the Civil Rights Commission took it from there.”
Here in Pennsylvania, we must be reminded that the reason Jack Phillips faced a lawsuit in the first place is because state lawmakers in Colorado added the special status of “sexual orientation” into state anti-discrimination law. While we’ve been able to stop multiple efforts to pass a similar law here in Pennsylvania, the legislative threat continues.
We’re reaching the last few days of PA’s two-year legislative session and, sadly, there are some state Senators trying to push the same type of Jack Phillips-attacking bill upon our state. PA Senate Democrat Minority Leader Jay Costa has filed a discharge resolution on Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta’s House Bill 300 that may force a Senate floor vote. This harmful bill, which passed the PA House earlier this session by a narrow margin with all but one Democrat and only two Republicans voting yes, would put many citizens, religious ministries and faith-based community services, faith-based business owners and professionals, and religious schools in jeopardy.
Please take a minute to ask your State Senator to reject this discharge resolution on House Bill 300. To email, you can use our action alert here.
Thanks for your continued support of defending religious freedom in our state.