Cakegate: Ulster Says No!

The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland will this week begin hearing the great “gay cake” case. This may sound like a joke, but is a deadly serious matter concerning freedom of expression and the right of a person to hold an opinion or object to someone else’s.

The appellants are Ashers, a bakery run by two devout Christians, Karen and Colin McArthur. Last May, they were fined for refusing to bake a cake for a gay couple. The law states that people cannot be discriminated against in the provision of services on the ground of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. However, they declined the order not because their customers were homosexual but because they were asked to ice the slogan “Support Gay Marriage” on the cake.

The judge in the district court ruled that although the bakers were devout Christians and opposed to same-sex marriage, they were not entitled to refuse to provide the service. However, they were not unwilling to bake the cake, rather they didn’t want to endorse a view to which they did not subscribe. More than that, the legislation allowing gay marriage in the rest of the United Kingdom has not been introduced in Northern Ireland. The McArthurs objected to promoting a change in the law with which they did not agree.

We are in the realms of thought crime here and even Peter Tatchell, the mad gay rights campaigner who initially welcomed the prosecution, has changed his mind about it. He said the law against discrimination was meant to protect people with differing views, not to force upon others opinions to which they conscientiously object. Indeed so. The conviction must be overturned. 

Telegraph leader.

Yup.

Northern Ireland: Ulster Says No!

Well, how better to illustrate a story about gay marriage on Independent Voices?

Continuing the great straight media tradition that gay men's faces cannot be shown, they must be cropped out or in disguise (usually drag).

Ah well, at least it's not some sodding 'gay' cake toppers.

PS You can't beat the classics, Save Ulster From Sodomy!

Update: And Guardian online go for this classic stock photo to illustrate a piece on protection from workplace discrimination in the US...

The Guardian: Yes! (and No)

Maybe the Guardian are finally weening themselves off crappy disembodied stock photos to illustrate gay stories.

Belast: I Wonder

Find out with this fun-packed interactive thing from BBC iWonder!

Will the BBC send Scott Mills, Reggie Yates and Stephen Fry to investigate???

Homophobia Watch: Hairdresser On Fire

A hairdresser has taken dramatic action after a customer refused to let a stylist cut his son’s hair when he realised he was gay

Russell Hughes, who owns Russell Paul Hairdressing in Prestatyn, North Wales, wants to make sure bigoted people never enter his salon again.

He has put a sign in his window which states: “If you are racist, sexist, homophobic or an a***hole... don’t come in.”

It comes after a man called in to ask if someone could cut his son’s hair, reports the Daily Post.

But he walked back out again after questioning the sexual orientation of 23-year-old stylist Richard Evans.

Russell, 49, explained: “It was a normal busy day at the salon when a man called in with his wife and child, who must have been about 10 years old...

“He asked if anyone could cut his son’s hair and I told him yes, that’s fine.

“I was already with a client and so I asked my colleague Richard if he would do it.

“The man came up to me at that point and said: ‘I’m not being funny but did you just say that lad’s going to cut my son’s hair’, to which I replied ‘yes’.

“He then said, ‘Well I assume he’s gay and I don’t want him cutting my lad’s hair so could you do it’, to which I said no because I’m gay as well.”

Russell, whose salon is the official salon for the cast of Prestatyn movie Womble [!], in which he also appears, said the man stood up and left without another word, but the exchange left staff shocked...

Mirror.

Much of the gay media thought this sign banning bigots was AWESOME!

And obviously completely different from, say, a Christian bakers refusing to make a cake supporting gay marriage.

Letter Of The Day: Cakegate

The Guardian.

See also Simon Jenkins The Law Can't Create Tolerance.

Gay Cake Row: A Very Strange Can Of Worms

The Telegraph.

"At the end of the day, if you went in there and two days later they said, 'We don't want to make your cakes because of our beliefs', you'd just never go back to that shop and you'd probably say to all your gay friends, 'Don't go there, they're anti-gay', and boycott it.

"What about if somebody walked in and said I want a cake and I want the whole Islamic State on it and how I support it and how I support them killing our people. Because it's a business, do they have to make it? And if they turn around and say they're not making it, we'd all applaud it."

Coleen Nolan on yesterday's Loose Women - watch her here.

It's a bit of a stretch to say; 'Coleen Nolan compares supporting gay rights to backing IS.' The Sun et al.

PS Beware self-righteous intolerance, whatever quarter it comes from - Michael White, The Guardian.

Gay Cake Row: Sledgehammer Smashes Cake

A judge has ruled that a Christian-run bakery discriminated against a gay customer over their refusal to make a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage...

BBC News.

Blimey. If you can't find a gayer who likes baking cakes, then we're doomed...

Tweets Of The Day: Resign!

@PeterTatchell he has resigned already.
— Edward Reach (@ReachEd) April 27, 2015

Who says online petitions are just silly exercises in vanity that have no effect?

I hope this small technicality won't stop Saint Peter taking full credit for this via his superpowers.

For the record, Fagburn doesn't agree with pressurising politicians to resign just cause they have obnoxious opinions, never mind calling in the cops.

PS The publicity-shy Tatchell seems to be suggesting he was the only person who confronted Katie Hopkins at the British LGBT Awards. He wasn't he was the only person who made sure there was a photographer on hand, told the gay media about it, and tweeted about his fearless act.

The full story of how & why I confronted Kate Hopkins at the @BritLGBTAwards over her bigoted views https://t.co/LRYsXQzAK5 @PatrickStrud
— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) April 26, 2015

General Election 2015: Vote For Susan-Anne White (Independent).

Via Alex.Kane on Twitter.

Liberty: If I'd Known You Were Coming...

Is there a real threat to the religious liberty of Christians in the west? If a Belfast bakery refuses to ice a customer’s cake with a gay marriage message it believes is contrary to the Bible, and then is taken to court, is this a threat to religious liberty? In the US, the claim of “religious liberty” is fast becoming a standard Republican talking point, and we can expect to hear much more of it as the primary season advances.

Democracies can certainly persecute unpopular minorities. No one doubts, for example, that homosexuals were discriminated against in both law and practice throughout most of the 20th century and that this discrimination was both unjust and widely approved, as it still is in Russia and large parts of sub-Saharan Africa today. It’s at least possible that conservative Christians might at some stage end up as despised and disadvantaged a minority as some of their victims have been in the past.

Whether it is in fact happening is a different question. Many of the cases of supposed discrimination amount to Christians wishing to retain a right they had until recently to discriminate against others. They claim then that it would violate their consciences to do or say certain things which society as a whole has determined are moral. This won’t do. Conscience cannot provide “a get out of jail free” card, neither metaphorically nor, should it come to that, literally. We all have consciences but there is no guarantee they will lead us to the same conclusions. This fact is literally tragic, as the Greeks knew. Nonetheless, any society has to privilege some ethical viewpoint and some virtues.

'What kind of cakes are they?' 'Fruitcakes.' Irish Times.

In the west we privilege conflicting but broadly liberal values. We no longer privilege the authority of the Bible. So, once we have determined that discrimination against homosexuals violates the principle of equality – and that is the settled position in both law and public opinion now – the fact that some people are compelled by their consciences to disagree does not exempt them from behaving as if it were true. There cannot be a special exemption for mistaken beliefs held on religious grounds when these harm others.

The difficult cases come when what is at stake is not behaviour, or not just behaviour, but speech or opinion. If there were a clear line between advocacy and action, this would be less difficult. But there is not, any more than there is a clear line between act and orientation. This is where the bakery case, unlike others, is complicated. Christian attempts to convert others may be obnoxious and embarrassing but they should not be illegal as well. There is always a case for tact when dealing with difficult employees. No one should be compelled to make propaganda for a cause they think false or pernicious. With all that said, the overwhelming fact is that claims of persecution are not just groundless but morally distasteful. Compared to the monstrous persecution suffered by Christians in Muslim countries like Iraq or officially atheist ones, being asked to ice a cake for a gay wedding is hardly martyrdom. It’s just the price of living in a civilised society.

Guardian editorial.

Dunno really. 

If someone doesn't want to bake you a cake, fuck 'em, and go somewhere that does. 

And similarly, if someone asks you to put a message on a cake you really don't approve of ('God hate fags/bakers!'?), I guess you should be free not to do so.

But it's only a fucking cake for the Anti-Christ's sake.

Or am I missing the point here?

Cakegate: Dumb & Dumber

There is no need to take this trifle to court - Ashers should just say sorry, and The Gays should say; 'We're boycotting you now, so NERR!'.

And... Off with their heads! Another gay man decapitated by BBC News.

Iain Paisley: 1926-2014

Right-wing Unionist shitbag and windbag behind the Save Ulster From Sodomy campaign.

Whose death is met with the usual gushing 'tributes' in the press.

Why oh why didn't the IRA kill this fuck?

If anyone knows where this cunt is being buried please let me know so I can go and dance and piss on his grave.

Cheers.

PS Sinn Fein were the first political party in 'the UK' to put gay rights in their manifesto. Respect!

Letter Of The Week: We Are Not "Weirdos"

I OBJECT strongly to the attitude of Robert McNeil in describing Christians opposed to gay marriage on biblical grounds as "weirdos" (News, April 30).
As Bible-believing people, our lives are governed by the guidance of Christ in Holy Scripture and, as a country, it would serve us all well to adhere to those laws.
Nevertheless, people have drifted from God's commandments and gone their own way. That's up to them.
But it doesn't mean a minority section of the community should have what God first ordained changed to suit their man-made concept and imitation of a true marriage.
Christians should not be referred to as "weirdos" in the Belfast Telegraph. I thought more of it. It's disrespectful. Are we not allowed to object, Mr McNeil? What if the Bible is the living word of God to mankind, Mr McNeil? What will you say when Christ returns and you are found to be wrong?
Anyway, the lifestyle of gay people is not the natural use of the body and is unhealthy for it and cannot be held up as equal.
This is not about love. It's about slipping in laws that are against God's ways. People think they can – and should – do what they want, like errant children. My Heavenly Father says that is not the way. Follow him.
Whether you do, or not, please refrain from insulting those who do and have the courage of their convictions to say so.

CYNTHIA CAMPBELL
Newtownabbey, Co Antrim

Belfast Telegraph.

Thanks for that Cynthia, lots to think about there.
The article that inspired this letter, on Stormont's current gay marriage debates is also quite funny - but in a good way. 

Best comment: "You run your life by a collection of Bronze Age folk tales from the middle east... no, not weird at all..."

PS And thanks to Steve (not Adam, though). x

Northern Ireland: Fag Hates Flags

All flags are stupid,
Think I've just brought peace to the six counties there.
Now is not the time for soundbites...

Ian Paisley Jr: It's A Sin (Still)

“I have huge respect for people no matter what their religious and social background. [When asked about his earlier outspoken views on homosexuality, Paisley Jr now says] I think I have grown up since then. I have strong Christian beliefs and moral viewpoints, but you have to realise that while sin is black and white, life is a lot of grey. You have to be mature about these things. I can strongly disagree with those viewpoints, but the point is how you disagree.”

House Magazine talks to Ian Paisley Jr, Democratic Unionist MP for County Antrim and Northern Ireland Assembly member.
In 2005 Paisley commented on the (Canadian) same-sex marriage of an aide to David Trimble; "It is really astounding that David Trimble should have had a man such as this giving him advice - and must surely cast grave doubts on his own political judgement. I think these sorts of relationships are immoral, offensive and obnoxious."
He told Hot Press magazine in 2007; "I am pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism. I think it is wrong.
"I think that those people harm themselves and - without caring about it - harm society.
"That doesn't mean to say that I hate them. I mean, I hate what they do."
I still hate you, Mr Paisley.
His father, the former DUP leader and crazed loyalist windbag "Dr" Ian Paisley, founded the brilliantly named camapign 'Save Ulster From Sodomy'.
They didn't.