A Christian-run bakery was, at the time of EN going to press in mid-July, facing legal action from a government agency for refusing to produce a cake carrying a picture of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie and the slogan ‘support gay marriage’.
Ashers Baking Co, based in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, cancelled an order for a novelty cake with a picture of the puppets arm in arm printed onto the icing saying that it went against the directors’ religious beliefs. They believe that producing the cake with the slogan and the logo of QueerSpace, a gay rights group the would-be customer supports, would amount to endorsing the campaign for the introduction of gay marriage in the province, and would go against their religious convictions.
Equality intervention
But the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland has now written to the firm claiming that it is breaking the law. A letter signed by the legal office orders the firm to ‘remedy your illegal discrimination’ within seven days or be taken to court by the commission.
It claimed that refusing to make the cake amounted to discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation against the man who placed the order. A member of the bakery owner’s family, who herself is in a civil partnership, entered the debate by questioning the setting of one set of rights against another.
