A Christian couple challenging a ruling against their bakery business that has implications for freedom of religion in the UK have lost their case today.
Colin and Karen McArthur from Northern Ireland appealed against the 2014 ruling of a county court that found the couple had discriminated against Gareth Lee after they refused to bake a cake that included the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’.
The order for the cake was initially accepted by the Belfast branch of the bakery, but the McArthur family later called Mr Lee to decline the order and offer a full refund as they felt the slogan went go against their firmly held Christian belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.
The case against them was brought on behalf of Mr Lee by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, but in an unusual move the Attorney General for Northern Ireland intervened in the Appeal case raising issues about constitutional validity of the regulations on which the case against the Ashers was based.
Mr John Larkin QC said the ruling against the couple fell foul of Northern Ireland’s constitutional law. Speaking in May after the appeal was adjourned due to his intervention, he said: “I say very clearly, if it was a case where Mr Lee had been refused some of Ashers’ excellent chocolate eclairs because he was gay or perceived to be gay I would be standing on the other side of the court”.
“But it’s not about that, it’s about expression and whether it’s lawful under Northern Ireland constitutional law for Ashers to be forced… to articulate or express or say a political message which is at variance with their political views and in particular their religious views.”
In court on Monday, the judges said that it did not follow that icing a message meant you supported that message. In their ruling, they said: "The fact that a baker provides a cake for a particular team or portrays witches on a Halloween cake does not indicate any support for either."
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