Christian bakery ordered to recant over Bert and Ernie gay marriage cake or face court

A Christian bakery firm which refused to make a cake supporting gay marriage with a picture of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie has been warned it will be taken to court unless it apologises and pays immediate compensation.

Ashers Baking Co, based in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, was told by a Government equalities agency that it was guilty of “unlawful religious, political and sexual orientation discrimination” for its stance on the Sesame Street-themed dessert.

But the family-run firm said it was ready for a “David and Goliath battle” over the cake insisting it was “what God would want us to do”.

The row erupted after it cancelled a £36.50 order to bake a novelty cake featuring the characters arm in arm under the slogan “support gay marriage” in May, saying that it went against the directors’ religious beliefs.

Daniel McArthur, general manager of the firm, said it would amount to endorsing the campaign for the introduction of same-sex marriage, and go against his conscience.

But the Equality Commission wrote to the firm insisting that the refusal amounted to discrimination against the customer, Gareth Lee, who wanted the cake for an event to mark International Day Against Homophobia.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK in which same-sex marriage is not legal, a stance recently confirmed by a vote in the province’s devolved Assembly.

Amid widespread media attention and even questions in Parliament over the case of the cake, the Commission sought further legal advice to clarify its position.

In a 16-page letter, the Commission said it was “now clear” that the decision not to bake the Bert and Ernie cake was a breach of equality laws and that it must back down and compensate Mr Lee for his hurt feelings or face legal action.

It accepts that gay marriage remains a contentious political question in Northern Ireland and that there are religious objections. It added that the fact that the McArthur family’s stance was motivated by their faith was enough to make it a case of religious as well as sexual orientation discrimination.

“This letter ... is to be understood as a letter of claim which, in the absence of both an immediate acknowledgement that there has been an unlawful breach of the equality laws set out above and an unconditional offer of adequate recompense to Mr Lee, will be followed by litigation,” it warns.

Simon Calvert, deputy director of the Christian Institute, which is supporting the firm, said: “It is simply baffling for a body supposedly working for equality to be threatening a Christian family with legal action, all because of a cake.

“The Equality Commission has taken four months to dream up new grounds on which to pursue the McArthur family, claiming that they’ve breached political discrimination laws.

“If supporting same-sex marriage is a protected political opinion, so is supporting traditional marriage. Yet the Commission clearly favours one view over another and is prepared to litigate to prove it.

“Is the Commission seriously saying that all business owners have to be willing to promote every political cause or campaign, no matter how much they disagree with it? Does a printer have no right to refuse to print posters for the BNP or Islamic State?

“The Commission is throwing the kitchen sink at this case, and is wasting tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in the process.”

Mr McArthur said: “We feel that the Equality Commission are pursuing us because of our beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman”.

“It feels like a David and Goliath battle because on one hand we have the Equality Commission who are a public body, they’re funded by taxpayers’ money, they have massive resources at their disposal whereas we are a small family business and we have limited resources at our disposal.

“We’re continuing to hold to the stand that we took originally because we believe it’s biblical, we believe it’s what God would want us to do, and we also think that if we do cave in to the Equality Commission at this point it’ll put pressure on other citizens who are defending their view of traditional marriage.”