A row over a cake adds a new twist to Northern Ireland's cultural conflicts
By B.C. | BELFAST
ACCORDING to the book of Genesis, Asher was one of the 12 sons of Jacob, and hence the forebear of one of the tribes of Israel. It was predicted of Asher that his “food would be rich” and he “would provide delicacies fit for a king.” That’s why the name was chosen in 1992 by a devoutly religious family that set up a bakery which now has six outlets in Northern Ireland.
But there was one delicacy which these God-fearing bakers baulked at providing for earthly masters. A branch just outside Belfast received an unusual order for a cake. It was to be used by Andrew Muir, till recently a local mayor, for a municipal gathering in support of an “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia”. The specifications were rather precise. There must be images of Bert and Ernie, puppets from the kids’ television show Sesame Street, and the logo of Queerspace, a gay rights campaign. The cake that was eventually prepared by another bakery also bore the words “Support Gay Marriage”.
After a couple of days’ reflection, Ashers concluded that “this order was at odds with our beliefs” and returned the deposit. Shortly afterwards, they received a letter from the Equality Commission, a government agency, demanding to know how it would compensate the offended customer and saying there would be legal proceedings if no reply was received within a week. Mr Muir said he supported the Equality Commission’s action, insisting that “businesses should not be able to pick and choose who they serve…”
On the face of things, this is a rerun of several American sagas in which gay couples look legal action against confectioners or photographers who refused to provide services for their nuptials. In Colorado, for example, an evangelical cake-maker who declined to provide one of his creations for a same-sex union has suffered two legal defeats.
The Christian Institute, a lobby group which is providing legal support for the bakery, will argue that in this case, something more than “serving customers” is at stake; it will say the bakers were being asked to provide active support for a position which offended their conscience, and has been rejected by Northern Ireland’s elected politicians on three occasions.
The case adds a new twist to the older standoff between religions and cultures in Northern Ireland, at a moment when familiar Catholic-Protestant tensions are in danger of reigniting. Among traditionalist Protestants, the gay-cake affair will only exacerbate the grievance they are already nursing over a ruling that their Orange parades, which come to a head this weekend, must not pass through a sensitive area of north Belfast.
As it happens, constitutional checks and balances designed to preserve Northern Ireland’s communal peace have also made it harder for the province to follow other parts of the United Kingdom by recognising same-sex marriage. The Democratic Unionist Party, for which most Protestants vote, staunchly opposes gay unions. As the guarantor of the "Protestant" interest, the DUP could use its blocking power to over-rule gay marriage, even if a majority of legislators were to vote for it. On other hand, the matter is to be referred to the high court later this year, and gay-rights activists seem confident of prevailing.
After a recent vote in the Belfast assembly against gay marriage, a spokesman for Amnesty International described Northern Irish politicians as "latter-day King Canutes" who "try in vain to hold back the tide of equality". But if such an analogy is correct, it might just raise questions about the expediency of fighting a hard legal battle against a small company which will now (to judge from similar cases in America) benefit from a surge of conservative sympathy, and a big jump in business.
