New guidance follows Ashers Bakery ruling

Appeal court judges have issued fresh guidance to firms as they upheld an unlawful discrimination ruling against Ashers Bakery Company.

In 2014, Ashers refused to provide a gay rights activist Gareth Lee with a cake featuring the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’.

However, with support from the Equality Commission, Mr Lee brought the matter to court where District Judge Brownlie found Ashers had “directly discriminated against Gareth Lee”.

The company had claimed it could not supply a cake with the gay marriage slogan on religious grounds. After the initial ruling in May last year, the family launched an appeal.

On Monday October 24, the appeal court upheld the original decision that Ashers in County Antrim discriminated against Mr Lee.

The court judges said it did not follow that icing a message meant support for the message, and that the law did not provide for bakers to offer a service only to people who agreed with their religious beliefs.

“The fact that a baker provides a cake for a particular team or portrays witches on a Halloween cake does not indicate any support for either,” judges said.

The appeal was initially heard in May, but the judgement was reserved until October.

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland came under fire for assisting Mr Lee in bringing the matter to court.

In a statement after the ruling, a spokesperson for the commission said: “The Equality Commission welcomes the judgement given today in Northern Ireland Court of Appeal in Belfast.

“This case raised issues of public importance regarding the extent to which suppliers of goods and services can refuse service on grounds of sexual orientation, religious belief and political opinion.

“The Court’s decision confirms the legal responsibilities on all service providers not to discriminate against their customers on these grounds.”

In their complex and comprehensive ruling that considered a range of discrimination acts, Human Rights regulations, and constitutional issues, Lord Chief Justice Morgan, Lord Justice Weatherup, and Lord Justice Weir, set out new guidance for companies concerned at the decision.

“The answer is for the supplier of services to cease distinguishing, on prohibited grounds, between those who may or may not receive the service,” the judges said.

“Thus the supplier may provide the particular service to all or to none but not to a selection of customers based on prohibited grounds… the [company] might elect not to provide a service that involves any religious or political message.  What they may not do is provide a service that only reflects their own political or religious message in relation to sexual orientation.”

A full transcript of the appeal ruling is available from the Equality Commission website.