European Court of Human Rights set to rule on Ashers bakery ‘gay cake’ case

Jan 5, 2022 by Jill

from Belfast Telegraph:

The final slice of the long-running Ashers bakery ‘gay cake’ case is set to be served up in Strasbourg later this week.

The European Court of Human Rights said it will be notifying in writing two rulings on Thursday morning — one of which is Lee v the United Kingdom.

In its schedule, the court states that “Gareth Lee is a British national who was born in 1969 and lives in Belfast (United Kingdom). He is associated with QueerSpace, an organisation for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Northern Ireland.

“The case concerns the refusal by a Christian-run bakery to sell a cake with the words “Support Gay Marriage” and the QueerSpace logo on it that Mr Lee had ordered and the court proceedings that followed.”

[…] After protracted legal proceedings, Ashers eventually won an appeal in the UK’s highest court, where the company’s actions were ruled not to be discriminatory by five Supreme Court justices.

The case was then referred to the ECHR, where it was argued that the Supreme Court “failed to give appropriate weight” to him under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The current case differs from the previous ones in that it is being taken against the UK, as a member state of the European Court, and not against the owners of Ashers, Daniel and Amy McArthur.

Read here (£)