Pastor Jordan Brown, a resident of Austin, made a video claiming that he ordered a cake from Whole Foods that was supposed to say "Love Wins" at the top, but that the cake he received from the bougie supermarket said, "Love Wins F*g." But it now appears there's more to the story.
At the time that Brown, an openly gay man, released the video, Whole Foods simply denied their employee did it. But now, the grocery store chain appears to have proof—in the form of security footage—that Brown was, at the very least, misleading. Proving that believing a pastor over believing a huge national corporation isn't always as cut-and-dry a case as it appears.
This is the video where Brown accuses Whole Foods of giving him the homophobic cake. Notice that Brown makes a big deal of the cake box still maintaining its original seal, which he shows as the barcode sticker and label:
And here is the footage of Brown purchasing the cake, provided by Whole Foods in their updated denial to the controversy. He is allegedly the man in the orange shirt approaching the cashiers from the right side of the screen:
Here, you can see the cashier scanning the barcode from a label on TOP of he box. You also can see that label on top of the cake box, albeit it's very blurry, as Brown exits the store:
Now, there's always the slim chance that Brown moved the sticker to the side of the box after he saw the slur written on the cake, because he thought giving his cake box a seal made his case seem more legitimate. However, if that's true... why didn't he notice the slur in the store through a clear-top box? On the other hand, it's also possible someone tampered with the cake between the time Brown left the store and actually looked at it.
Also, there's the inconvenient fact that, according to Whole Foods, the baker who handled this cake is queer:
We stand behind our bakery team member, who is part of the LGBTQ community, and we appreciate the team members and shoppers who recognize that this claim is completely false and directly contradicts Whole Foods Market’s inclusive culture, which celebrates diversity.
Brown and his attorney are currently suing Whole Foods for the slur they say was written on the cake. But now Whole Foods is suing him right back. Love won. But Brown might lose.