Anti-gay bakery loses discrimination case

A Belfast bakery has been found guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a cake bearing the slogan “Support Gay Marriage” on the ground that the cake’s message would conflict with the bakery owners’ Christian ethos.

Judge Isobel Brownlie called Ashers Bakery’s cancellation of the order “direct discrimination for which there can be no justification.”

Brownlie, who didn’t immediately specify a penalty for the conviction, said the bakery was a business, not a religious organization.

The region’s Equality Commission had pursued the lawsuit on behalf of Gareth Lee, who ordered the cake for a gay rights event. Same-sex marriages are legal in the rest of the United Kingdom but remain unrecognized in Northern Ireland.