From Reuters:
“European Court rules Northern
Ireland gay cake case inadmissible”
(Daniel McArthur general manager
of Ashers bakery involved in a "gay cake" legal dispute arrives at a
Supreme Court hearing in Laganside courts in Belfast, Northern Ireland, May 2,
2018.)
A complaint of discrimination
previously dismissed by Britain's highest court against a bakery that refused
to make a cake with a pro-gay message was inadmissible, the European Court of
Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday. Ashers Baking in Belfast was found
guilty of discrimination in 2015 for refusing to make a cake for a customer
iced with the words "Support Gay Marriage" because of the owners'
Christian beliefs.
The bakery failed in an appeal to
the local courts in 2016 but the Supreme Court, the UK's highest judicial body,
overturned that decision two years later, saying the bakers' objection was to
the message on the cake, not to any personal characteristics of the messenger,
or anyone with whom he was associated. Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist who
had ordered the cake, argued that the Supreme Court failed to give appropriate
weight to him under the European Convention of Human Rights. But the ECHR said
it could not usurp the role of the local courts after Lee failed to exhaust all
domestic remedies. It said this was particularly so in British-run Northern
Ireland, "where there is a large and strong faith community and where the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTIQ) community has endured
a history of considerable discrimination and intimidation."
While same-sex marriage was
enacted in the rest of the United Kingdom in 2014, it was made legal in
Northern Ireland only in 2020 amid opposition from the largest party in the
region, the socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party. LGBTIQ support
organisation, the Rainbow Project, said the decision brought the case to a
close, but that there remained a number of questions around what protections
exist following the 2018 Supreme Court decision. The Christian Institute, which
supported the bakery owners through the courts, said the outcome was "good
news for free speech and good news for Christians."
^ I support Gay Marriage and Equal
Homosexual Rights, but I agree with the courts on this one. If the cake was
just supposed to have something like the couple’s name and date on it or “Congratulations!”
and the bakery refused to put that then it would be discrimination, but to not
put a political message like “Support Gay Marriage” should be up to the bakery
whether it’s for a Straight Couple or a Gay Couple. I would not personally
support or buy anything from a place that openly discriminates against someone
because of their Sexual Orientation, their Sex, their Race or a Disability –
but that doesn’t mean it is illegal not to do something. ^
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