A court has ruled that a Ashers Baking Company, a bakery which refused to supply a cake with the slogan "Support Gay Marriage" because of their "Christian" beliefs illegally discriminated against the customer. Unfortunately for Kossacks, the case is in Northern Ireland.
It goes back to 2013 when a member of the local council, Andrew Muir, organized an event to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia in Bangor Castle Town Hall. A supporter ordered the cake for him.
The customer who did place the order complained to the Equality Commission, and the watchdog took up the case, warning Ashers that it had allegedly discriminated against the man on the grounds of his sexual orientation.
The firm refused to compensate the customer, saying it was "taking a stand" on the grounds of religious freedom and has attracted support from Christian organisations.
Mr Muir was later presented with a replacement cake from another bakery which agreed to accept the order.
The customer, a Mr Lee, complained to the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland who took up the case on his behalf. Andrew Muir, who was the first openly gay Mayor of the town, tried to encourage the two sides to mediate rather than go through the courts but this failed. He is a member of Northern Ireland's Alliance Party. This is a cross-community party and a member of the EU wide Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the European Parliament and the Liberal International. (As such, it is a sister party of the Liberal Democrats in Britain)
Despite approaches to go to mediation, the bakery company refused absolutely. In the course of the trial, it was discovered that one of the "controlling directors" of the company had personally taken the order but had not mentioned any problem. As well as the slogan, the cake carried the image of two Sesame Street characters and the logo of a local rights organization.
The company (even in interviews outside the court after the hearing where they state they will appeal) maintain the pretense they are a small family company but the Equality Commission's barrister debunked that:
He said while some had portrayed Ashers as 'David' to the Equality Commission's 'Goliath', it was a firm with more than 60 staff that supplies convenience stores and delivers cakes in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
"This is a case about a single man who had a contract for a cake which was accepted by a substantial, international million pound business of many employees," he said.
"You might say that Mr Lee is the David and Ashers the Goliath."
The ruling issued today makes it clear that these actions
were illegal.
A Belfast judge said Ashers were not exempt from discrimination law.
Ashers are "conducting a business for profit", they are not a religious group, the judge said.
They were found to have discriminated against Mr Lee on the grounds of sexual orientation.
The judge said he accepted that Ashers have "genuine and deeply held" religious views, but said they were not above the law.
The judge ordered Ashers to pay Mr Lee £500 compensation. The right-wing Protestant Unionist parties appear to be set on trying to change the law. In that they may well be helped by predominantly Catholic Republican parties like Sinn Fein. Both sides of the religious divide are unfortunately in thrall to some of the most extreme clergy.