Ten years on: Ashers Baking Company threatened by NI equalities watchdog
Ten years ago, the owners of Ashers Baking Company in Belfast were surprised to receive a letter from the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) threatening legal action. A few weeks before, they had refused customer Gareth Lee’s order when he had requested a cake decorated with a pro- same-sex marriage slogan.
Karen McArthur, who with husband Colin owns Ashers, had initially taken the order for the cake, which was to display the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie, the slogan “Support gay marriage”, and the logo of campaign group QueerSpace. But Karen and her family were committed Christians, and though she hadn’t wanted to be the cause of confrontation by upsetting Mr Lee in person, she knew her family-run business would not be able to fulfil the request.
She discussed the order with her husband, who agreed they would have to decline. He asked her at the time “how we could stand before God and bake a cake like this, promoting a cause like this”.
They informed Mr Lee they could not fulfil his request, and refunded him. They thought this would be the end of the matter, but several weeks later, on 26 June 2014, they received a letter from the ECNI, saying they had discriminated against Lee on the basis of his sexual orientation.
Legal battle
And so began a four year legal battle for the family, fronted by Karen and Colin’s son and bakery General Manager Daniel and his wife Amy. Ashers argued that they had not discriminated against the customer, but against the message, given they had served many homosexual customers over many years. But the equalities watchdog argued in court that it had discriminated against Mr Lee. District Judge Brownlie ruled in the ECNI’s favour, saying that Ashers had broken sexual orientation and political discrimination laws.
The family appealed, but while the appeal judges recognised that the family did not refuse the service because Mr Lee was gay, they nonetheless ruled in October 2016 that refusing the order because of its slogan “was direct discrimination”.
The Christian Institute supported the family from the start, not only providing legal advice and representation, but also offering pastoral care as the family dealt with the emotional burden of the case.
While they could have accepted the small fine and moved on, they felt determined to see the case through. In October 2018 the UK Supreme Court delivered a unanimous ruling in favour of the company, stating emphatically that the family’s objection “was to the message, not the messenger”.
The comprehensive ruling upholds free speech and prevents the law forcing businesses to express views with which they profoundly disagree.
Ten years on we continue to give thanks for the McArthur family’s courageous stand for the truth and for the way in which they chose to glorify God in their words and conduct throughout an exhausting legal process – culminating in the UK Supreme Court’s wonderful ruling.