The UK Supreme Court has found in favour of a bakery in Northern Ireland that refused to provide a cake in favour of gay marriage. The withdrawal of the service was deemed not to be discriminatory as it was based on the message and not the individual characteristics of the person.
In 2014, Gareth Lee ordered a cake from Ashers Bakery and sought the depiction of the cartoon characters Bert and Ernie with the words ‘Support gay marriage’. The bakery later declined to fulfil the order as it was a Christian business.
Mr. Lee brought a claim against the bakery for both direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and religious and political belief. Both the County Court and the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal found in favour of Mr. Lee.
The Supreme Court therefore had to consider issues surrounding both jurisdiction and discrimination. Regarding discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, it was found that the objection by Ashers Bakery was to the message and not any personal characteristics of Mr. Lee. The Court treated the message separate to the sexual orientation of the customer, noting that the bakery would have refused the same cake to a heterosexual couple.
Similarly, in considering discrimination on grounds of religious belief or political opinion, the Court found that the bakery had not refused to supply a service to Mr. Lee and therefore there was no discrimination. The Court was of the belief that the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression included the freedom not to be obliged to hold or manifest beliefs that are not held. Service providers could not be compelled to express a message with which they disagreed unless there was justification for doing so.
On the jurisdictional issues, it was found that the Court of Appeal had been wrong to reject a request for reference to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General. It was found that this error “had deprived the appellants of the inevitably different judgment on the question of whether the SORs [Sexual Orientation Regulations] imposed civil liability on them for their refusal to express a political opinion contrary to their religious beliefs.”
Click here for the decision in Lee v Ashers Baking Company.
Click here for a previous PILA Bulletin article on the County Court decision.
Click here for a previous guest piece from Lisa Taggart of the Equality Commission for Northern Irelandon the Ashers Bakery case.