Ashers Bakery loses appeal over cake with gay marriage slogan

Ashers Bakery has lost its appeal against a ruling that said it had discriminated against a gay man in refusing to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan.

The Court of Appeal ruled against the Christian bakery in their appeal on Monday.

Ashers said it will now wait a further week before deciding their next course of action.

District Judge Isobel Brownlie initially reached the following conclusions in May:

• The appellants had the knowledge or perception that the respondent was gay and/or associated with others who were gay.

• What the respondent wanted the appellants to do would not require them to promote or support gay marriage which was contrary to their deeply held religious beliefs.

• The appellants cancelled the order as they opposed same sex marriage which is inextricably linked to sexual relations between same sex couples which is a union of persons having a particular sexual orientation.

• The respondent did not share the particular religious and political opinion which confined marriage to heterosexual orientation.

In stating the case for direct discrimination on Monday, the Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan: “The appellants would not have objected to a cake carrying the message “Support Heterosexual Marriage” or indeed ‘Support Marriage’.

“We accept that it was the use of the word ‘gay’ in the context of the message which prevented the order from being fulfilled.

“The reason that the order was cancelled was that the appellants would not provide a cake with a message supporting a right to marry for those of a particular sexual orientation.

“This was a case of association with the gay and bisexual community and the protected personal characteristic was the sexual orientation of that community. Accordingly this was direct discrimination.”

The Lord Chief Justice also stated that the Equality Commission could have done more to advise Ashers around the case and how to reconcile that with their own religious convictions.

Speaking outside the court after the decision Mr McArthur called the decision 'disappointing.'

"The court said the Commission gave the impression it was not interested in assisting the faith community in issues like this," he said.

"I think a lot of people will agree with that. That’s certainly how we have felt.

"In the meantime, other businesses will have to take advice about whether they can refuse orders that conflict with their consciences. Or whether they too may be coerced into promoting other people’s views.

The case was sparked in 2014 after Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist, tried to order a cake with the slogan “support gay marriage” written on it.

The bakery initially took his order, for which he paid £36.50, but then phoned him two days later to say they could not carry it out.

The Northern Ireland Equality Commission then took up the case, claiming that the bakery had discriminated against Mr Lee because of his sexual orientation.

The owners of the bakery, the McArthur family, contended that they had no problem with the customer’s sexuality, but rather that the slogan went against their deeply held religious beliefs.

A court found that Mr Lee had been discriminated against, which Ashers then appealed against.

The appeal had been due to be held in February of this year, but was delayed until May after an intervention by the NI Attorney General John Larkin.

The McArthur family will now deliberate over what their response to Monday’s decision will be, as UTV correspondent Jane Loughrey reports.