A hearing in a case over whether Northern Ireland’s “non-discrimination” requirements violate the European Convention on Human Rights by forcing people to advocate for homosexuality was postponed after the nation’s attorney general asked to intervene.
In the case against Ashers Baking Co., a lower court ruled last year that its owners discriminated against a homosexual customer by refusing to put a “gay”-promoting slogan on the cake. The bakery owners have argued they didn’t know, or care, about any customer’s sexuality, but the requested message violated their Christian faith, and the European Convention on Human Rights gives them the right to refuse to put it on one of their cakes.
Northern Ireland’s attorney general, John Larkin, on Wednesday issued a statement on the dispute, declaring the nation’s Equality Act may place “a burden on certain forms of political or religious expression given the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion.”
He explained: “At first instance and, it appears, on appeal, the case concerns, in part, the interplay between allegations of discrimination in the provision of good[s] and services on the ground (1) of sexual orientation and on the ground (2) of political opinion, and a defense which relies on the religious beliefs and political opinions of those engaged in the provision of goods and services.”
Larkin asked the court for permission to intervene in the arguments.
He pointed out he had cited “the possible incompatibility of the 2006 regulations with articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Due to Larkin’s request, the hearing regarding Ashers’ appeal has been postponed to May 9.
The BBC said Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan described the lateness of the request as “most unfortunate.”
But he said a delay was needed.
“It seems to us that it is simply not possible to do that [proceed immediately] without running into some risk of fairness in the hearing,” the judge said.
Daniel McArthur, the bakery’s general manager, issued a statement: “While the delay means it will be exactly two years to the day that the order was placed which led to the case, we are patient people and will now await the next stage in the process and remain confident that our case is right and just.”
Simon Calvert, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, which has been working on behalf of Ashers, said the development “clearly underlines what we have said all along – that this is a really important case.”
Change of mind
The owners got an unexpected boost earlier this week when homosexual activist Peter Tatchell wrote in the London Guardian that while he originally condemned Ashers, he has changed his mind.
“Two days before the case goes to appeal, I have changed my mind. Much as I wish to defend the gay community, I also want to defend freedom of conscience, expression and religion,” he wrote.
He said the lower court’s ruling that found Ashers breached Northern Ireland’s Equality Act and Fair Employment and Treatment Order, which “prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the respective grounds of sexual orientation and political opinion” perhaps wasn’t the best result.
“It pains me to say this, as a long-time supporter of the struggle for LGBT equality in Northern Ireland, where same-sex marriage and gay blood donors remain banned. The equality laws are intended to protect people against discrimination. A business providing a public service has a legal duty to do so without discrimination based on race, gender, faith and sexuality.
“However, the court erred by ruling that [Gareth] Lee was discriminated against because of his sexual orientation and political opinions. … His cake request was refused not because he was gay, but because of the message he asked for. There is no evidence that his sexuality was the reason Ashers declined his order,” he wrote.
Such a conclusion is a bad precedent, he said.
“Northern Ireland’s laws against discrimination on the grounds of political opinion were framed in the context of decades of conflict. They were designed to heal the sectarian divide by preventing the denial of jobs, housing and services to people because of their politics. There was never an intention that this law should compel people to promote political ideas with which they disagreed.”
He continued: “This raises the question: should Muslim printers be obliged to publish cartoons of Mohammed? Or Jewish ones publish the words of a Holocaust denier? Or gay bakers accept orders for cakes with homophobic slurs? If the Ashers verdict stands it could, for example, encourage far-right extremists to demand that bakeries and other service providers facilitate the promotion of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim opinions. It would leave businesses unable to refuse to decorate cakes or print posters with bigoted messages.”
‘Injury to feelings’
The nation’s Equality Commission had supported plaintiff Lee in his complaint against the bakery, and the initial court ruling from Judge Isobel Brownlie agreed.
The owners of the bakery were ordered to pay a fine of $750 for “injury to feelings” after they refused to promote homosexuality on their product.
Similar cases have arisen in the United States, where courts have fined, penalized, threatened and intimidated Christian business operators, including bakeries in Oregon and Colorado and a photographer in New Mexico for refusing to promote homosexuality with their professional talents, as WND’s Big List of Christian Coercion shows.
The bakery owners, the McArthurs, have argued in court they were unaware of any potential customer’s sexual lifestyle choices. They simply could not subscribe to the message.
The Christian Institute recently posted a video of the bakery’s managers explaining that the lower court decision appeared to have been made before evidence was presented.
“They wanted to teach us a lesson. … If you’re a Christian, don’t bring it into work,” they said.
See the statement:
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/hearing-over-gay-promoting-cake-postponed/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/hearing-over-gay-promoting-cake-postponed/
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