A story that caught a lot of people’s attention last week was the supreme court ruling about the so-called ‘gay cake’. The case involved Ashers Bakery in Northern Ireland that refused to bake a cake with a slogan supporting gay marriage to a gay, male customer, Gareth Lee. Mr. Lee sued the bakery for discriminating on the grounds of sexual orientation, arguing they refused to sell him the cake because he is gay. The bakery however maintained they did not refuse to bake the cake because of the sexual orientation of the customer but because they personally disagreed with the message.
Although the bakery initially lost the case, the court finding they had treated Mr.Lee with discrimination, they finally managed to appeal to the supreme court. The five court justices came to the unanimous decision that Ashers refusing to bake a cake with a support gay marriage slogan did not amount to discrimination. The court came to this decision arguing that the bakery’s objection was to the slogan on the cake rather than to the sexual orientation of the customer and therefore did not constitute discrimination. Arguably, they would have refused making this cake to anyone regardless of the characteristics of that individual.
Initially, this does seem highly unfair and seems to suggest the supreme court justices were allowing businesses to reject homosexual clients for no real reason. However, in reality this is not the case. In fact, the Judges in this case were seeking to protect out right to freedom of expression and belief. You should not to forced to endorse a belief that you yourself do not believe in. To put it another way, you would not expect a gay baker to have to make a cake with the slogan ‘Against gay marriage’ iced on top! This should not be viewed as a step away from equality for homosexuals but rather seen as a case protecting our human rights.
If you wish to learn more about the case the references is ([2018] UKSC 49) You could read the court’s judgement yourself!
Additionally, do not forget to check out the different news articles, such as the BBC’s report, linked here: BBC Article
