LONDON: Britain's Supreme Court says a bakery owned by a Christian family didn't discriminate against a gay customer when it refused to make a cake supporting
same-sex marriage.
Ashers Baking Co. in
Northern Ireland refused in 2014 to make a cake iced with the
Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie bearing the slogan "Support Gay Marriage." The owners argued they couldn't put messages on their products at odds with their Christian beliefs.
Judge Brenda Hale said on Wednesday that their objection was to the message on the cake, not to the personal characteristics of the customer.
She said that while it is "deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity" to deny service because of sexual orientation, "that is not what happened in this case."