The Christian owners of a bakery in Northern Ireland have lost their appeal against a finding that their refusal to make a “gay cake” was discriminatory.

The Court of Appeal in Belfast upheld the judgment of the Belfast recorders court that Ashers Bakery had discriminated against a customer on the grounds of sexual orientation (Lee v. McArthur & Ors [2016] NICA 39)

A local gay rights activist had ordered a cake bearing the message “Support Gay Marriage” above an image of Sesame Street characters, Bert and Ernie. The family-run bakery refused to make the cake on the grounds that the message was against their religious views.
In response to the judgment, Daniel McArthur from Ashers Bakery said “we have always said it was not about the customer, it was about the message.”

However, the judges did not agree with the family’s argument that the bakery would have been endorsing gay marriage by baking the cake. “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.”

The judges also said, “the supplier may provide the particular service to all or to none but not to a selection of customers based on prohibited grounds. In the present case the appellants might elect not to provide a service that involves any religious or political message. What they may not do is provide a service that only reflects their own political or religious message in relation to sexual orientation.”

The Court of Appeal in Belfast found that the original decision was correct and Ashers Bakery had therefore “discriminated against the respondent directly on the grounds of sexual orientation contrary to the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2006”.

Ashers Bakery has received significant support over the past couple of years, including from Northern Ireland’s attorney general, John Larkin QC. Supporters have suggested that an appeal against the ruling could be lodged at the Supreme Court in London.

This Northern Ireland case is another example of the conflict that we have seen arise in England and Wales (most notably in some high profile Christian hotelier cases) between the anti-discrimination provisions of the Equality Act 2010 and the right to express religious beliefs under the European Convention on Human Rights.