In what sense, precisely, has a bakery in County Antrim contravened discrimination law by refusing to ice a cake with a gay marriage slogan on it? The ‘gay cake’ case does have the useful function of identifying the partisan and idiot character of the Equality Commission, in this case, of Northern Ireland, which acted for gay rights activist Gareth Lee, the offended customer, whose slogan was repudiated by Ashers Bakery. The cake itself is silent on the matter right now but it was, I gather, available to be consumed by any customer of Ashers Bakery, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.
The image the customer wanted on the cake
And that’s just the point. Ashers, which is run by Presbyterian Christians, has made clear that it wasn’t turning down the custom of Gareth Lee because he was gay; they were perfectly prepared to sell him an iced bun or doughnut.
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