In the US, a Colorado baker is currently fighting a ruling that he violated the state’s anti-discrimination law for refusing to bake a cake to celebrate a gender transition.

Jack Phillips previously refused to make a same-sex wedding cake on religious grounds and was penalised by the state’s Civil Rights Commission. However, that decision was overturned by the US Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision in 2018 on the grounds that the Commission exhibited an anti-religious bias. Court liberals Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan joined the majority opinion wrote by chief Justice John Roberts.

In the present case, in arguments before Colorado’s appeals court, Phillips’ attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom urged the court to overturn a ruling issued last year against their client on procedural grounds and said the court should uphold Phillips’ First Amendment rights.

Phillips was sued by Autumn Scardina, a biological male who identifies as a woman and who ordered a pink cake with blue frosting from Phillips’ shop, Masterpiece Cakeshop in 2017.

During the 2021 trial, according to The Associated Press, Phillips said he believes someone cannot change genders and he did not celebrate “somebody who thinks that they can.”