Aaron and Melissa Klein, the Oregon bakery owners whose refusal to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple sparked a national media storm, appeared in a YouTube video this week reading mean tweets about them.
The couple behind the now-closed Sweet Cakes by Melissa recently paid a $135,000 damages award after state regulators found they discriminated against Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer on the basis of sexual orientation, violating their civil rights.
In January 2013, Rachel Bowman-Cryer visited the Gresham bakery with her mother to order a cake for a civil commitment ceremony. Aaron Klein, working alone that day, turned her away, citing his Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage.
The women filed complaints with the state, triggering a national debate over the Kleins' claims of religious freedom in the face of anti-discrimination laws that require Oregon businesses to serve the public equally.
The video was produced by The Daily Signal, an online-only news organization that's published by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank based in Washington, D.C.
Set to lighthearted music and titled "Oregon Bakers Read Mean Tweets," the video features the Kleins reading printed-out tweets on camera and reacting to them.
"Those were interesting," Melissa Klein says in the video, laughing. "Although we've read way worse."
While the video portrays the Kleins as having a good sense of humor about their online infamy, that was apparently not always the case.
"I would say that at first, when, like, this all hit and we, on our Facebook page, when people blew up our Facebook with saying things, it really hurt, like, really bad," Melissa Klein says about halfway through the video.
Greedy Gay-Hatin' Bakers Pocket Sweet Bigot Bucks, Tell Court To Suck Frosting http://t.co/4mEEe4xLMS pic.twitter.com/Lsq6Uzf4Ls
-- Wonkette (@Wonkette) October 1, 2015
But over time, their perception began to change.
"You start to realize they're coming from a place of ignorance," Aaron Klein says later in the video.
"Now when I read it I actually hurt for them," Melissa Klein says of the tweets. "I pray for them."