Austin pastor claims Whole Foods cake had homophobic slur

An Austin pastor says a cake he ordered from Whole Foods last Thursday had a homophobic slur written on the top when he received it.

The attorney for Pastor Jordan Brown says he ordered a cake from the Whole Foods store on Lamar Boulevard with the personalized message "Love Wins," but when he received it said "Love Wins F--."

"As a 30-year-old openly gay pastor, I have had to face years of discrimination and judgement for something that I had no control over," Brown says. He explains, that trauma resurfaced Thursday with the incident involving the cake.

In a YouTube video, Pastor Brown says he didn't realize what it said until he got into his vehicle. In the video he shows the box containing the cake was still sealed. Brown says when he told store management what happened they said their employee did not do it and no action would be taken.

Brown's attorney, Austin Kaplan, says after reaching out to the Whole Foods corporate office and receiving no substantive response for more than three days, they filed a lawsuit. "We had no choice but to do this because Whole Foods did not respond when we alerted them about the situation," says Kaplan.

"Pastor Brown never asked for this to happen. He continues to be overwhelmed by the feelings of pain, anguish, and humiliation because of this incident," says Kaplan. "He frequently shopped at Whole Foods, which makes this all the more shocking and disappointing. What really concerns him is knowing that unless some action is taken, this kind of thing could happen again, and that someone else might have to go through a similarly excruciating experience."

Pastor Brown says he is the pastor and founder of the Church of Open Doors, a non-denominational, Christian-based church. He told reporters he was buying the cake for a friend Thursday, was in a hurry and didn't see what was written on the cake until he was driving out of the parking lot. "My client has not been trained. He does not have icing. He didn't do it. Simply, he received the cake that way," added Kaplan.

Whole Foods released the following statement regarding Pastor Brown's claim:

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.'

The lawsuit is not seeking a specific dollar amount in damages. Brown and his attorney say they want whoever wrote on the cake to be punished and they want Whole Foods to put procedures in place to make sure oversight prevents this from happening at any Whole Foods store.