Celebrations on Sesame Street as Gay Cake finally delivered https://t.co/F1RG4DcjuE… Please ReTweet pic.twitter.com/XIxmbOtd7v
— Will Corry (@slievemore) October 25, 2016
They said it was about the message in support of gay marriage that he had wanted on his cake.
“Now we’re being told that we have to promote the message, even if it’s against our consciences,” Mr McArthur said.
“Other businesses will have to take advice about whether they can refuse orders that conflict with their consciences or whether they have to be coerced as well into promoting other people’s views.”
But there was nothing in the court’s decision requiring Ashers or any other business to promote a view with which the company’s directors disagreed.
Ashers can keep within the law and not promote “other people’s views” by confining its custom-made service to birthday cakes — which is what it has said it will do.
A Jewish or Christian shopkeeper is not required to trade on the Sabbath just as a Muslim butcher is not required to sell pork.
But if a business does supply a service, it must not discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation — which means it must not refuse to provide a gay person with goods that it would provide to others.
In this case, said the courts, the correct comparison was not with a straight man who wanted a “gay” cake, which Ashers would have refused.
It was with a gay or straight person who ordered a cake celebrating traditional marriage — which the company would have supplied.
And, as the appeal judges said, “the fact that a baker provides a cake for a particular team or portrays witches on a Halloween cake does not indicate any support for either.”