A lesbian who lives in Washington, D.C., was appalled to find a homophobic message sloppily scrawled on a cake she'd ordered from a bakery in Arlington, Va. 

Sarah, who asked that her last name not be used, tells SheWired she placed an order for a cake with a local bakery near her job in Arlington, intending to surprise her genderqueer partner, Lindsey, on the couple's anniversary. She asked for a cake based on a design she saw in the bakery's catalog that featured balloons on the cake's top. Sarah asked that the custom order not include the balloons, but include the words "Happy Anniversary Lindsey! Love, Sarah."

When Sarah picked up the cake, she found that it not only contained the balloons she specifically requested be removed, but also an apparently homophobic message written in sloppy, unprofessional handwriting. 

As the photo Sarah shared with SheWired shows, the cake appears to read "Lesbian Anniv. No Ballons."

Sarah says she contacted the bakery's owner, who apologized for the sloppy text, but not for the inaccurate, homophobic content of that text. The owner refunded Sarah's money, and offered her a "less sloppy" cake, but refused to address the cake's messaging, even when Sarah pressed the issue. Sarah says she declined the owner's offer for a new cake. 

"How could anyone mistake that for something a person would want on a cake?" Sarah asks The Advocate rhetorically. "And what baker would sell something so messy and unprofessional? When it occurred to me that this was probably an intentional insult to my relationship, I was appalled at the audacity of the cake decorator, or baker, or whoever was responsible. It's disappointing to know that when I want to honor the most important person in my life, I have to worry about some intolerant person ruining the surprise I had planned."

While Washington, D.C., where the couple resides, has a comprehensive antidiscrimination policy in place that prohibits discriminatory treatment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, Virginia has no such law protecting either category, according to Equality Virginia. 

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