'Gay cake' row: Judgment expected in bakery appeal

A Christian bakery, found to have broken the law by refusing to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan on it, will learn the outcome of its appeal today.

Ashers Baking Company from County Antrim accepted but then declined the order because it conflicted with the belief of the proprietors that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Customer Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist, had placed an order for a cake featuring the Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie and the logo of Belfast campaign group Queerspace.

In a case taken by the Equality Commission, District Judge Isobel Brownlie ruled that the bakery had broken sexual orientation and political discrimination law and ordered it to pay £500.

But the McArthur family, who own the business, said they could not, in conscience, produce a cake that they felt would be sinful and have sought to overturn the judgment.

The appeal was dramatically adjourned for three months when Northern Ireland's Attorney General, John Larkin QC, raised a potential conflict between Northern Ireland's equality legislation and European human rights laws.

Senior judges granted Mr Larkin permission to participate in the appeal when he argued that sexual orientation regulations in Northern Ireland discriminate against those who hold religious or political beliefs.

If the customer had been refused chocolate eclairs "because he was gay or perceived to be gay then I would be standing on the other side of court, but it's not about that", he said.

"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 view and in particular their religious views," he added.

Robin Allen QC, representing the customer, Mr Lee, argued: "The single core point which divides an act which would be favourable to an individual from the act which occurred is one word, the word gay."

He claimed the case was indisputably about political opinion and noted that the order was refused 10 days after the Northern Ireland Assembly had again voted against introducing same-sex marriage.

Eighteen months ago, the Republic of Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by referendum. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where it remains unlawful.