‘Gay cake’ bakery cleared - Bitter for some?

The UK’s Supreme Court has made a compelling case for deciding in favour of a Belfast bakery in the ‘gay cake’ row, overturning a lower-court ruling that the decision not to bake a cake — iced with the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’ — was discriminatory.

The judges did so by differentiating between the message and the messenger, making the point that the bakers could have refused equally to write the slogan on the cake if the customer had been heterosexual, or if his or her sexuality was unknown.

The court concluded that there was no discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.

However, the decision could have major implications for LGBT people in the UK in general, and in the North in particular, raising the prospect that faith, religious beliefs, and moral viewpoints will always trump equality rights.

If the Supreme Court ruling has such far-reaching effects, it could lead the way to widespread discrimination, undermining the very foundation for equal rights and justice.