Thirsty Scholar Issues Statement on 111 Cakery Controversy

In mid-March, a short-lived furor broke out among Indianapolis LGBT community members and their allies over 111 Cakery‘s stance on same-sex marriage, as the shop’s owner, Trish McGrath, refused on religious principles to make a cake for a pair of men soon to wed. The sprinkles settled on that kerfuffle, though offended parties called for 111 Cakery to shut its doors permanently. Amidst a firestorm of comments posted on the cakery’s Facebook page that were alternately thoughtful and hateful, McGrath deactivated that account. In her final post on the page (at left), she said that she had not made a spot decision, but rather one mulled in prayer, with much “soul searching.”
McGrath did not return multiple requests for comment, but a neighbor and business partner of the Penn Arts building’s owner did. Thirsty Scholar, an eclectic beer-wine-coffee bar on the same corner of 16th and Delaware streets, was conceived by co-owners Christopher Piazza and Kevin Schmidlin to anchor the commerical base of the Penn Arts Building. That building is owned and operated by Reverie Estates, a development company at which Piazza serves as president. Thus, of course, 111 Cakery pays rent to Reverie for its business space. Reverie as a company was a supporter of Freedom Indiana‘s fight to halt marriage bill HJR-3 at the Statehouse earlier this year.
Here’s the statement that Schmidlin released exclusively to IM:
Dear Friends & Associates,
We started Thirsty Scholar with three huge symbols in our windows—a peace sign, a heart, and an equality symbol. The equality symbol represented our passionate belief in the right of every human to marry the person that they love. Our belief in this basic human right is unchanged and unwavering, and we were part of the fight against the divisive and discriminative HJR-3 because we believe in a state that embraces all people, and we believe in love.
For us, the answer is not to segregate those who hold different beliefs, but to seek harmony and understanding with all of our brothers and sisters, and it is with this spirit that we hope to be an inspiration to our neighbor 111 Cakery.
Sincerely,
Kevin J. Schmidlin
President, Thirsty Scholar LLC
“Thirsty Scholar will continue to carry 111 Cakery products,” Schmidlin said via e-mail. “I can’t speak as to whether or not [the cakery] will continue to abide in the building. Those are not matters that pertain to me. Therefore, I have not even inquired with anyone about that.”

Notably, not all LGBT-identifying individuals are aligned in stark opposition to 111 Cakery’s position. That community’s members have expressed a range of responses—understanding, ambivalent, fence-sitting, or overtly opposed to the Cakery—via social media as the largely online fracas swirled, and then later in interviews. The word “bullying” came up a couple of times. Here’s a look at excerpts from those posts and interviews:
“This is a free market, and just as the proprietors of 111 Cakery feel they can choose to not do business with the LGBT community based on their religious beliefs, we have the right to not to go to their business and to tell our friends, co-workers, or anyone else not to support them. The stupefying part for me is the utter lack of awareness of their surroundings. They are situated between Greg’s and The Varsity Lounge, two of the oldest gay bars in the state, not to mention they are next to the Harrison Center for the Arts and across the street from Herron High [School]. It seems rather obvious that they were establishing their business in a liberal and LGBT-friendly neighborhood. To think that their discrimination would go unnoticed just seems particularly tone deaf.”
—Nicholas Murphy, president, Indy Pride
“If you want someone to respect you, treating them poorly is the wrong approach. … I hate to see a company lose what they worked so hard for just because of one unhappy customer. … In a way we are actually bullying them into doing what we want them to do. We’re not earning their respect; we’re actually bullying them into giving it to us.”
—Jeremy Frodge, Carmel
“If there are bakeries in town discriminating based on some criteria, then there is obviously a market for a bakery that doesn’t discriminate. One that markets to all walks of life. I would just ask questions of the one you are purchasing from and do your own research. That’s number one, who supports your individual mission. Buy from them. … The two most powerful tools that people have in their arsenal are, one, access to the ballot and voting for who represents them, and two, their wallet—choosing where to spend their dollars. So an individual decides not to spend dollars at a business like Chic-fil-A. If I were to say ‘No Boy Scout troupes allowed,’ and One Million Moms for Boy Scout Troupes started a boycott, I would deserve it.”
—Aaron Schaler, owner, Pizza King Indianapolis