The Supreme Court has held it is not discrimination for a bakery in Northern Ireland to refuse to make a cake saying ‘Support gay marriage’.

The bakery’s objection was to the message, not to any particular person or persons. The bakery would have been willing to supply a different cake to that customer, and would have refused to supply the same cake to a heterosexual person.

The Supreme Court in this case, Lee v Ashers Baking Co Ltd www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2018/49.html , rejected the view of the NI Court of Appeal that this was direct discrimination by association. The court said it was not enough that the less favourable treatment had something to do with the sexual orientation of some people.

More: Sexual orientiation and the Equality Act, and Discrimination by association and by perception.