The incident allegedly occurred at the company's flagship store in Texas.
Updated 8/25/16: In May, Whole Foods dropped its countersuit against Brown after Brown apologized for the entire incident, saying, "The company did nothing wrong." He also said was was wrong to "perpetuate this story." Brown extended that apology to the LGBT community, the bakery associate, his partner, his church, and his lawyer.
Updated 4/20/2016: On Tuesday, Whole Foods filed a countersuit against Brown, claiming Brown's story about the cake and its homophobic slur was fraudulent and that he acted "with malice." The store also released video footage and disputed Brown's claim that the cake box remained unopened after it was purchased.
Original post: A pastor is suing the Whole Foods flagship store in Austin after a homophobic slur was iced onto a cake he ordered. KXAN reported that the store is denying any wrongdoing.
According to the lawsuit, Pastor Jordan Brown ordered a blank cake from the display for a member of his congregation and asked it be iced with the words "Love Wins." The cake was prepared and packaged by a bakery worker. On the car ride home, Brown looked down and noticed that the cake instead said "Love Wins Fag."
Our team member wrote "Love Wins" at the top of the cake as requested by the guest, and that's exactly how the cake was packaged and sold at the store. Our team members do not accept or design bakery orders that include language or images that are offensive. Whole Foods Market has a zero tolerance policy for discrimination. We stand behind our bakery team member, who is part of the LGBTQ community, and the additional team members from the store, who confirmed the cake was decorated with only the message "Love Wins."
Yes, but saying it does not make it so, and fierce denial is, well, an interesting PR move on Whole Foods' part. Remember: The cake box allegedly remained sealed.