Equality Commission threatens legal action against bakery that wouldn’t make ‘support gay marriage’ cake
The Equality Commission has threatened to launch a lawsuit against a bakery, after it refused to bake a cake with the message “support gay marriage” on.
In July, Asher’s Baking Company – based in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland – refused the request of a gay rights activist for a cake showing the message ‘Support Gay Marriage’ above an image of Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie.
The Commission later found that this act broke anti-discrimination laws, and called for the bakery to apologise, but its manager vowed to instead “make a stand”.
This week, the Commission warned in a 16-page legal letter that the bakery will face legal action if it does not settle the case soon.
According to the Telegraph, it warns: “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.”
Bakery owner Daniel McArthur reiterated his lack of compliance, saying: “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.”
