'gay Cake' Back In Court

[naomi24]

//A Northern Ireland bakery found to have discriminated for refusing to make a "gay cake" will have its appeal heard by the Supreme Court later on Tuesday.
Ashers Bakery are challenging the ruling over their decision - in 2014 - not to make a cake iced with the slogan "Support Gay Marriage".
Appeal court judges upheld the original decision in 2016.
The Supreme Court will hear the case on Tuesday and Wednesday during its first-ever hearings in Northern Ireland.//

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-43955734

I didn’t realise this argument was still going on. Will an appeal to the Supreme Court succeed? I have my doubts.

[dannyk13]

I hope that they win their appeal.Why should anyone be forced to manufacture anything?

[naomi24]

Me too, danny.

[Cloverjo]

If the couple wanted that pic of Bert and Ernie on their cake the bakery could have just cited copyright rules for not making it. No need for all this palaver.

[scooping]

I hope they win too. I don't have to support gay marriage, why should they?

[naomi24]

Cloverjo, you're suggesting they should have lied? That's a sad indictment on the law.

[Cloverjo]

No, they wouldn't have needed to lie. There are copyright laws applicable.
When my son was young I asked a bakery to make a cake with a character on it (Pokemon or something). They wouldn't do it because of copyright laws. I'm sure Bert and Ernie are well protected under those laws.

[naomi24]

Cloverjo, but that wasn't the reason they refused to make the cake. They told the truth.

[weecalf]

Was it a case of the customer is always right ?

[ludwig]

I doubt they'll succeed, but I think they should.

[douglas9401]

If you want to get ahead, get a minority.

[ToraToraTora]

Perlease just go to another cake shop, this is bullying.

[Bazile]

I'm suprised at the consensus so far

I may be wrong , but I recall when this matter was first discussed that folk were of the opinion that that are offering a service to the public and therefore had no objection

And yes I too hope they succeed

[Bazile]

' should have no objection '

[anotheoldgit]

Would there been all this trouble if the bakers had been Muslims?

I feel sure they would have been able to get away with it on religious grounds.

[ToraToraTora]

this is nothing but a bunch of hard line gays with nothing better to do than bait businesses that are not on the love a gay bandwagon. Plenty of gay friendly cake shops and B&Bs out there.

[THECORBYLOON]

ANOTHEOLDGIT, the bakers said they were refusing on the grounds of religious freedom and they were supported by legal assistance from the Christian Institute.

[sp1814]

The problem this case throws us is the point about religious freedoms and setting a precedent. It could be argued (and I think I took this view originally), that if an establishment is allow to cite religious freedom in order to refuse service, then we could get into a situation where anyone could refuse service to gay people, by citing that.

Firemen would be able to refuse to attend blazes as gay clubs. Nurses could refuse to treat gay people etc.

However, thinking about it - I don’t think this case sets that precedent, and if argued correctly, the bakery could win. They didn’t refuse to bake the cake because the customer was gay. They refused because of the message. They would have refused even if the customer were straight.

Therefore, I think they should win.

[jim360]

I think that recently, even Peter Tatchell came out in favour of the bakery, and that despite his being leader of Stonewall. It does indeed depend, as sp says, on whether they were discriminating against the customers (obviously and rightly illegal), or the cake.

I'll be interested to read the judgement when it is released.

[ToraToraTora]

TBH they should have just refused without explanation, they have that right.

[Old_Geezer]

Just put the cake into therapy. Straight cake is a cool vibe.