--- title: Whole Foods Releases Security Footage in Gay Slur Countersuit description: The openly gay pastor sued the grocery chain for allegedly writing an offensive slur on a cake authors: - name: Denver Nicks url: https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 60 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DenverNicks - https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932 former_staff: true published: '2016-04-20T20:57:51.000Z' modified: '2016-04-20T20:57:51.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Austin - cake - cakegate - Church of open doors - Gay Rights - hate - Homophobia - Jordan Brown - pubdesk - Whole Foods word_count: 243 canonical: https://money.com/whole-foods-releases-security-footage-in-gay-slur-countersuit/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Whole Foods To Buy Wild Oats Markets For $565 Million](https://img.money.com/2016/04/gettyimages-73393175.jpg) First, an openly-gay pastor in Austin, Texas, filed suit against the grocery chain Whole Foods for [allegedly](http://austin.blog.statesman.com/2016/04/19/what-people-are-saying-about-the-whole-foods-cake-case/) writing a homophobic slur on a custom cake he ordered. On Tuesday, Whole Foods fired back with its own countersuit against the pastor and security camera footage it says proves the accusation is a lie. The incident began when Pastor Jordan Brown of the Church of Open Doors held an emotional press conference this week in which he announced a lawsuit against Austin-based Whole Foods over the alleged incident seeking unspecified damages for mental anguish, court costs and other expenses, [The Austin American-Statesman](http://austin.blog.statesman.com/2016/04/19/what-people-are-saying-about-the-whole-foods-cake-case/) reports. News of the suit quickly went viral. Standing by the employee accused of writing the slur, who Whole Foods says is a member of the LGBTQ community, the company countered with a suit of its own against Brown, accusing him of “intentionally, knowingly and falsely accusing Whole Foods and its employees of writing the homophobic slur.” Whole Foods lawsuit seeks a minimum of $100,000 in damages from Brown. To support its claim, Whole Foods released security camera footage from inside its store that the company says contradicts Brown’s claim. “After reviewing their security footage of Mr. Brown, it’s clear that the UPC label was in fact on top of the cake box, not on the side of the package,” Whole Foods said. “This is evident as the cashier scans the UPC code on top of the box[, which you can view here.”](http://www.statesman.com/news/business/whole-foods-taking-legal-action-against-cake-accus/nq7qt/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/whole-foods-releases-security-footage-in-gay-slur-countersuit/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Lawsuits", "item": "https://money.com/lawsuits/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Whole Foods Releases Security Footage in Gay Slur Countersuit" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/whole-foods-releases-security-footage-in-gay-slur-countersuit/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/whole-foods-releases-security-footage-in-gay-slur-countersuit/", "name": "Whole Foods Releases Security Footage in Gay Slur Countersuit", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-04-20T20:57:51.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/whole-foods-releases-security-footage-in-gay-slur-countersuit/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/whole-foods-releases-security-footage-in-gay-slur-countersuit/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-04-20T20:57:51.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Whole Foods Releases Security Footage in Gay Slur Countersuit", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/04/gettyimages-73393175.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 1961, "caption": "Whole Foods To Buy Wild Oats Markets For $565 Million" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denver Nicks", "url": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2012/09/09_1165862081.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DenverNicks", "https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-04-20T20:57:51.000Z", "description": "The openly gay pastor sued the grocery chain for allegedly writing an offensive slur on a cake", "abstract": "The openly gay pastor sued the grocery chain for allegedly writing an offensive slur on a cake", "@id": "https://money.com/whole-foods-releases-security-footage-in-gay-slur-countersuit/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-04-20T20:57:51.000Z", "wordCount": 243, "keywords": [ "Austin", "cake", "cakegate", "Church of open doors", "Gay Rights", "hate", "Homophobia", "Jordan Brown", "pubdesk", "Whole Foods" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lawsuit", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawsuit" ] } ] } ] } ```