> Now, I'm absolutely certain they would have refused to bake the cake irrespective of whether the customer was gay, straight, black, white, whatever. In other words no-one was discriminated against. No-one was treated differently to how anyone else would have been treated.
ludwig, how long did it take you to reach this conclusion, and what legal background do you have? This case took almost a year to reach a ruling, and the ruling was made by a judge. That suggests that it is not as cut and dried as you imagine, especially as the judge ruled the opposite way to the way your logic dictates.
I accept that people may have completely opposite opinions to the ruling. As for why the ruling went the way it did, I believe it comes down to a response I gave to Naomi: The whole point is that being gay doesn't make people a special case. Mr. Lee was not asking for special treatment, but he got it! He was just asking to be treated the same way as everybody else. i.e. if you can go into the bakery and ask for (and get) a cake decorated with a "Jesus Lives" message, why shouldn't he be able to go into the same bakery and ask for (and get) a cake decorated with a gay equality message? The bakery is in business to make money, which means it has to abide by anti-discrimination legislation.
If a pharmacy sells contraceptives, then you can be sure that someone in that pharmacy will sell you the contraceptives you wanted - otherwise there would be no point stocking them.
Likewise, if a supermarket sells alcohol, or pork, you can be sure that someone in that supermarket will sell you alcohol or pork - again, otherwise there would be no point stocking them.
This bakery sold cakes, but refused to sell a cake based on a decision that fell foul of anti-discrimination legislation. The reason it went to a ruling was that neither side would back down. The bakery lost. It's that simple.
> That may be true (though it seems it is not in this NI case), but that doesn't stop an individual for making a decision contrary to the laws of the land, an example being conscientious objection to participating in warfare.
Absolutely, Khandro, but those individuals then have to accept that the law deals with them appropriately.