Gareth Lee, the LGBT campaigner who ordered a same-sex marriage celebration cake from Ashers Bakery in 2014, has lost his latest courtroom battle – this time in the European Court of Human Rights.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Ashers’ favour on the basis that its objection to the cake was to the message and not ‘the messenger’.
Lee failed to convince European judges that the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss his claim interfered with his Convention rights, and that such interference was not proportionate.
His application was ruled inadmissible as he had not exhausted domestic remedies in respect of his complaints. The court found that at no point in proceedings before the courts in England and Wales had Lee expressly invoked his Convention rights.
He had effectively asked the court to ‘usurp the role of the domestic courts’.
The judges acknowledge the ‘heightened sensitivity’ of the necessary balancing exercise in the particular national context – ‘where there is a large and strong faith community, where the LGBTIQ community has endured a history of considerable discrimination and intimidation, and where conflict between the rights of these two communities has long been a feature of public debate’.
They added: ‘The domestic courts were better placed than this Court to strike the balance between the competing Convention rights of the applicant, on the one hand, and the McArthurs, on the other.’
Simon Calvert from the Christian Institute, who supported Ashers throughout the case, said: ‘The UK Supreme Court engaged at length with the human-rights arguments in this case and upheld the McArthurs’ rights to freedom of expression and religion. It was disappointing to see another attempt to undermine those rights, so it is a relief that the attempt has failed.’
