A bakery firm in Northern Ireland is facing a discrimination case after refusing to bake a cake with a slogan supporting ‘gay marriage’
Ashers Baking Company, which is owned and run by the McArthur family, who are Christians, declined an order from a gay rights activist asking for a cake featuring the Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie with a slogan saying ‘Support Gay Marriage’.
Marriage between people of the same sex is illegal in Northern Ireland. In April 2014 the Stormont Assembly rejected a Sinn Fein motion to change the definition of marriage for the third time in eighteen months.
The customer also wanted the cake to feature the logo of a Belfast-based campaign group called “Queerspace”.
The cake was ordered for a civic event in Bangor Castle Town Hall, County Down, to mark the invented ‘International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia’, ‘IDAHOT’ in May.
The event, hosted by Councillor Andrew Muir, the openly-homosexual Mayor of North Down for the divisive Alliance Party, went ahead after another company provided a cake.
But now, six weeks after the event, the County Antrim firm has received a letter from a self-important quango called the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
The firm’s general manager, Daniel McArthur, said that his firm offered the customer a full refund, which was collected shortly after the order was refused.
“We thought that was the end of it, but approximately six weeks later we received a letter from the Equality Commission. The Equality Commission’s letter said that we had discriminated against the customer on the grounds of his sexual orientation.
“It asked us to propose how we would recompense the customer for this discrimination. It also said it would pursue legal proceedings if we didn’t respond within a seven-day time period,” Mr McArthur said.
The watchdog confirmed it is assisting the customer. In a statement, it said: “The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland provides advice and can provide assistance to people who complain to us that they have suffered unlawful discrimination.
“In this case the commission has granted assistance to the complainant, and has written to the company concerned on his behalf. The commission will consider any response before taking further action.”
But the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said the Equality Commission had overstepped the mark and the complaint highlighted the need for a “conscience clause” to protect Christians and others who have deeply held beliefs.
DUP MP Nigel Dodds said: “The case re-opens the debate about how exactly religious belief is respected within the United Kingdom and the need for someone’s conscience to be protected whilst ensuring that discrimination does not occur.”
Mr Dodds could point out that Ashers have not discriminated against the complainant on the grounds of his sexual orientation, although this should in conscience be their right.
They have instead objected to manufacturing a product carrying a contentious political message.
Ashers could equally have objected to producing icing depicting the Sesame Street’s ‘Bert’ and ‘Ernie’ out of respect for the copyright protection attached to those characters.
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland is now considering its next step.
Equality Commission for Northern Ireland:
Telephone: 028 90 500 600
Textphone: 028 90 500 589 Fax: 028 90 248 687
Equality House 7-9 Shaftesbury Square Belfast BT2 7DP
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This bakery ‘claims to be Christian, however
this obviously creates a dilema for Christian Voice,
do you support this bakery,
or not.
There is no dilemma at all!
Of course we support them. I thought that was quite clear.
I think the Baker should sue Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and the complainants for religious discrimination, harassment, loss of earnings and bringing their business into disrepute.
This country took Christianity to the world but they have now brought shame to Christianity. Christ is watching all the discrimination and harassment of Christians. They would not dare do this to Muslim religion.
What if some one wakes up and ask the Baker to bake a cake with abusive words or promote marriage man and animal and he declines, will ECNI sue the baker for refusing to do so. Why don’t they sue the government for rejecting gay marriage?
Why cant they just go to another Baker. This is a deliberate act of persecution of the Baker by the system.
No matter how much the Christians are persecuted, we will stand firm and defeat this act of unfairness and discrimination.
This is a simple one. If the government of Northern Ireland discriminates against a couple interested in marriage on the grounds that they are of the same sex, it can;t prosecute a baker for doing the same thing.
Since the baker was being asked to infringe the copyright law by using two characters from a TV production, the EQNI will have to back off or it will be accused of seeking to circumvent the law.
Along the same track. The dancing fraternity is in a pickle over same sex dance couples. —–discriminate and support equallity or have physically unmatched couples dancing. This is where man’s wisdom breaks down.
With God’s law there is no dilema, no contradictions and yet equality in Jesus Christ remembering also “But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.”
I’ll wager they ‘targetted’ this bakery deliberately owing to its Christian ethos when another bakery would have conceivably obliged them.
[…] then a week later, they actually end up being largely in the right (though perhaps by accident) on another recent matter – the right to turn down a commission without having to justify yourself seems a fairly clear […]
Christian Bakers should Not be Persecuted for Standing by Christian Beliefs
Christians should seek to Challenge Secularism and the Anti Christian Forces behind it
Namely the Destruction of Morality by the Destruction of Religion
I Think that it is Worthwhile in Principle writing to the Equality Council For Northern Ireland to
Complain about the Persecution of the Christian Baker
Namely to point out that Religious Freedom mean’s Nothing when Christians are Bullied into
Abanoning Christian Beliefs on Marriage or any other Subject it Constitutes
Anti Christian Discrimination
Its time the homosexuals shut up and be grateful for all the equal rights they have offensively obtained.
I know!! How offensive that one group of individuals would want equal treatment to others
It has not been remotely established that the gay cake buyers were treated any differently from any other group wanting a political statement and breach of copyright on their confectionery.
But of course the ‘equal treatment’ line is intended to obscure the fact that homosexuals have actually been granted additional and special rights by the Equality Act 2010 as a favoured group (‘protected characteristic’) over the rest of us.
[…] See 11th July 2014: Ashers Baking ‘Discriminated’ […]