Ashers Baking Company’s principled stand for traditional marriage and free speech was criticised by the Government minister responsible for faith and integration in November.
Lord Bourne told Premier Radio that there should be ‘no hatred on the basis of sexual orientation’ as he discussed the case last week. The Christian Institute responded by saying that the minister had shown himself to be ‘out of step’ with public opinion by going ‘out of his way’ to attack the family-run Christian bakery. [And out of step with the details of the case, as it was made clear by the judges that Ashers had not discriminated against Mr Lee due to his sexuality – editor.]
In an exclusive interview, Lord Bourne said it was his view that Ashers had broken discrimination law when it declined to decorate a cake with the campaign slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’.
Pressed on whether he thought Ashers discriminated, he said: ‘I think it’s very clear that this was the case and that is the law of the land. We must respect judges, this issue has come up previously and the judges are there to uphold the law of the land, they’re an important part of the constitution and we must respect what they say.’
