The horrifying hate mail the lesbian couple still receive THREE YEARS

'Go jump off a cliff and take your wife with you', 'Rot in hell you f****** skanks', 'I'm buying up my ammo right now you filthy, ugly, disgusting, fat, stupid, cruel, piece of lesbian scum.'

These are just three of the hundreds of Facebook messages Rachel and Laurel Bowman Cryer receive in their inbox, three years after they were denied a wedding cake at a Portland bakery.

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The couple's name made headlines in July 2015 when they won $135,000 in emotional damages caused by Aaron and Melissa Klein, who owned the Sweet Cakes bakery in Gresham, Oregon.

It was supposed to be the end of a battle that began in 2013, when the Bowman-Cryers asked the Christian bakers to make their special raspberry fantasy cake.

'You started a war b***h, I'm far from done with you', 'I'm getting ready for the war so I hope you and your t**t-faced girlfriend have a good hiding spot', 'F*****g die, or just kill yourself.'

The messages come by the hour, filling up Laurel and Rachel's inboxes with insults and threats, accusing them of ruining the lives of both the bakers and fellow members of the LGBTQ community.

A Saudi Arabian man finds their Facebook and tells the couple their case has inspired him and his friends to whip gay people with canes.

He said he asked one of them to get a wedding cake, in the couple's honor, and place it in a video of the beatings. He promises to send the Bowman-Cryers a link.

The couple have tried to remain quiet for years, up until now. They quit their job, declined media interviews, and moved to a nondescript house on the outskirts of town that they now rarely leave.

But as they retreated, Aaron and Melissa Klein only grew louder. They hired former President George HW Bush's White House lawyer, toured with Ted Cruz, spoke about business owners' religious freedom.

It wasn't until Laurel and Rachel, who had been together since they were 19, inherited two little girls that they decided they would finally get married.

Lizzy and Anastasia, aged three and two, were the two daughters of Laurel's best friend, who died of cancer in 2010.

Anastasia has Asperger's and stopped speaking when her mother died. Lizzy has cerebral palsy, autism and chromosomal disorder that delays development, according to OregonLive.com.

The couple, who had both come from broken homes, wanted to give the girls a real family. One of the first thing Rachel's mother said when she heard the happy news was: 'Let's call Melissa'.

Melissa Klein had made a cake for McPherson's sixth marriage two years before, to a fiancée she had known for a few weeks.

Rachel and her mother still talked about Melissa's 'raspberry fantasy cake'. It seemed like the perfect way to bond, both getting married with the same cake, after years of estrangement.

McPherson had kicked Rachel out of the house for being a lesbian when she was 14.

But there would be no fantasy, cake or otherwise. When Rachel and McPherson arrived at Sweet Cakes they met with Aaron, who first asked: 'What are the names of the bride and groom?'

'It's two brides,' Rachel told him cheerfully.

'I think we may have wasted your time,' said Klein. 'We don't do same-sex weddings.'

Rachel burst into tears and mother and daughter left the shop. But McPherson turned the car around, she wanted to reason with Klein.

She told him how she had once discriminated against gay people. How everything changed after both her daughter and younger son came out.

Klein claims he replied with a Bible quote: 'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female, it's an abomination.'

McPherson said he told her something quite different: 'I'm sorry ma'am. But your children are an abomination.'

Her soon-to-be-wife in tears all night, Laurel knew she had to do something. She filed what she thought was a review to the Better Business Bureau, warning them not to go to Sweet Cakes.

She only realized two weeks later she had actually made a complaint to the Oregon Department of Justice, when Aaron Klein received notice his bakery was under investigation.

Laurel's name and phone number were included on the notice. He posted it on Facebook.

'This is what happens when you tell gay people you won't do their 'wedding' cake,' he wrote.

That's when the messages began.

'Can't wait to see you go die, and go to hell one day', 'Go the f*** away, you and your fat a** wife', 'F****t lesbian money-grubbing b*****s, rot in hell you f*****g skanks.'

Laurel asked the Department of Justice to drop the case, Rachel declined every interview. The women wanted to keep their two girls safe.

The state attorney abandoned the case. But the Kleins kept talking, and the hate mail kept coming.

After eight months, the Bowman-Cryers decided to reach out to the Bureau of Labor and Industries, which is in charge of enforcing the state's civil right laws.

Laurel and Rachel wanted to try and get the Kleins to stop speaking out, to offer an apology, to let it all go, they told OregonLive.com.

The couple have said they never wanted an award, that they considered it 'blood money', but that it was not their decision how the case was prosecuted.

Laurel was diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer just before the trial. Rachel was so exhausted from the hate mail and abuse she walked using a cane.

Labor commissioner Brad Avakian believed there was enough evidence that the Klein's had caused $135,000 worth of damage to the couple.

That money remains locked up in a government account as the bakers continue to fight for appeals, potentially planning to take the case all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Bowman-Cryers spent years being turned away by landlords who didn't want the publicity that came with them.

Rachel now cleans houses to help the family get by. She was denied food stamps because the intake worker recognized her name.

Once a regular performer, now she only sings for her girls.

'Give me a break fata***s, like you need a cake anyway', 'Happy Pride, hope you don't die', 'Your fight for cake led to death. Do you know how sick that is.'

It's been three years, but the Bowman-Cryers have realized it was never just about a cake.

'I feel like Melissa Klein doesn't believe that my family should celebrate being a family,' Rachel said. 'Shouldn't recognize in front of our friends and family our commitment to each other.'

'It's not, "I'm denying you a wedding cake". It's "You don't deserve to have this. You don't deserve to have this part of your life."'

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Reviews

[authorised1960]

What, pray, is the point of this long, tiresome and frankly uninteresting diatribe?

It doesn't move the story forward any. It doesn't offer anything original. It doesn't even say much other than to re-hash a cold, dead story.

We all know that there are scum who hide behind the anonymity of the internet to act like a******s. There are laws against that sort of behaviour and the perpetrators of the crap that was sent to the couple will be punished in time.

I am sympathetic to an extent as I am bi-sexual and have been on the end of similar crap myself. This piece, though well-intentioned, is unnecessary and pointless.