Christian bakers who refused to make a cake with the slogan “Support gay marriage” should not have been found guilty of discrimination, according to Peter Tatchell, the gay rights activist who initially supported the case against them.
As Ashers Baking Co prepares to take its case to the Court of Appeal in Belfast this week, Mr Tatchell said that he felt bound to defend “freedom of conscience, expression and religion”.
A county court judge ruled last May that Daniel and Amy McArthur, owners of Ashers, were guilty of discrimination for refusing to make the cake for Gareth Lee, a gay rights campaigner.
Mr Tatchell publicly supported Mr Lee, saying that a victory for the couple “would have led to a situation where anyone could claim the right to discriminate on the basis that they disagreed with another person’s beliefs”.
Yesterday he said that he still disagreed with Ashers but that the cake request had been refused not because Mr Lee was gay but because of the message he wanted on it. “This raises the question, should Muslim printers be obliged to publish cartoons of Muhammad? Or Jewish ones publish the words of a Holocaust denier? Or gay bakers accept orders for cakes with homophobic slurs?”
He added that he would now be willing to testify in support of the couple in court if asked.
As Ashers Baking Co prepares to take its case to the Court of Appeal in Belfast this week, Mr Tatchell said that he felt bound to defend “freedom of conscience, expression and religion”.
A county court judge ruled last May that Daniel and Amy McArthur, owners of Ashers, were guilty of discrimination for refusing to make the cake for Gareth Lee, a gay rights campaigner.
Mr Tatchell publicly supported Mr Lee, saying that a victory for the couple “would have led to a situation where anyone could claim the right to discriminate on the basis that they disagreed with another person’s beliefs”.
Yesterday he said that he still disagreed with Ashers but that the cake request had been refused not because Mr Lee was gay but because of the message he wanted on it. “This raises the question, should Muslim printers be obliged to publish cartoons of Muhammad? Or Jewish ones publish the words of a Holocaust denier? Or gay bakers accept orders for cakes with homophobic slurs?”
He added that he would now be willing to testify in support of the couple in court if asked.
Sad.
Still baffled as to why anyone still takes this self-publicist loon seriously.
PS Here's the shape-shifting lizard's original article.
What an utter nutter.
Still baffled as to why anyone still takes this self-publicist loon seriously.
PS Here's the shape-shifting lizard's original article.
What an utter nutter.
Posts
I made a cake once. Here is a song about it.
ReplyDeleteCakey cakey cakey
Cakey cakey cakey
Roger ******** blow me
Or sue me
Or something
Here's my number
Yeh whatever
Cake cake cake cake cake cake cake
Oh look, its also a lunchery. I must pop over there instead of getting a life and we can all discuss the old testament, which Peter Whatever has clearly not been reading lately. Well who can really blame him, it must be so difficult to navigate the 6000 bylaws written in 1342 which prevent him from having any common sense whatsoever.
ReplyDelete