Belfast bakery defends right to deny gay-marriage slogan

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, March 26 (UPI) -- Northern Ireland's Ashers Baking Co. is defending in court Thursday its right to refuse to ice a cake with the words, "support gay marriage."

The country's Equality Commission is hearing the case against the Christian bakery, after gay-rights activist Gareth Lee was declined a cake with a picture of Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie characters with the gay-marriage statement. Lee also requested the cake have the logo of the Britain-based LGBT organization Queerspace.

Lee's legal counsel said Thursday the company broke the law by refusing the order.

The courts heard testimony that a worker at the bakery took the order without a problem. About two days later, the bakery canceled the order. Legal counsel Robin Allen said Lee was a regular customer at the family-run bakery and was never told of any restrictions on custom-made items.

"The rule of law says there shall be no discrimination in the commercial sphere," Allen said.

Bakery General Manager Daniel McArthur said the order was refused because it was not in line with the company's views.

"We considered it, looked at it and decided that it was at odds with our beliefs and was in contradiction with what the Bible teaches," McArthur said .

The case has attracted thousands to attend public meetings and donate to a lobby group supporting the bakery. Some in Belfast are outraged that the commission is pursuing the case. The commission said the bakery breached laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the provision of goods or services.

"This case raises issues of public importance regarding the extent to which suppliers of goods and services can refuse service on grounds of sexual orientation, religious belief and/or political opinion," the commission said before the court hearing.