The sexual-discrimination thread raised some excellent legal points, particularly the enforcing of a contract for services. The UK has its own Cake case which will come before the Supreme Court in April. Here's the Belfast Telegraph online report from November 2017 for your hardcore consumption.


[Headline:] Supreme Court court to visit Belfast for Ashers Bakery 'gay cake' case appeal ...

The Supreme Court will sit in the Inns of Court Library at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast - only the second time in its history that it has been held outside London.

Supreme Court President Lady Hale will be joined by Deputy President Lord Mance, Lord Kerr - who is a former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland - Lord Hodge and Lady Black for up to four days of hearings.

One of the cases being heard in Belfast will be the high-profile legal argument over a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage.

The judges will hear arguments on whether a bakery directly discriminated against a customer on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Ashers said it could not fulfil an order for a cake with "Support Gay Marriage" written on it because of religious beliefs.

The bakery's Christian owners are challenging a ruling that they breached equality laws by refusing to make a pro-gay marriage cake for an activist, Gareth Lee.

The Supreme Court is a relatively recent innovation, beginning in 2009.

Established as part of the measures included in the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005, it has taken over the judicial functions previously held by Law Lords in the House of Lords.

Lord Chief Justice Kerr is originally from Co Armagh and studied at Queen's University before being called to the Bar in 1970. Between 2004 and 2009 he served as Northern Ireland's final Law Lord.

In its first venture away from its London base last month, the court held a sitting in the Scottish capital.

The Court will also hear a case on whether a policy on allowances for widowed parents breaches human rights laws.

Lady Hale said she was delighted the court will sit in Belfast, adding: "Whilst in Belfast we shall hear two significant appeals from the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland.

"This will be a fantastic opportunity for local people to see the Court in action on their doorstep. The Supreme Court is committed to being one of the most open and accessible in the world and, like all our hearings, our Belfast cases will be live streamed via our website for everyone who cannot get to see us in person."

Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland Sir Declan Morgan said: "I believe it is important for people in this jurisdiction to have the opportunity to see the work of the Court at first hand, which can only help to enhance public confidence in the administration of justice."

Belfast Telegraph

Very interesting for us here...

Thank you for this different perspective, esias!

:)

Just as a data point...
Was gay marriage illegal in Ireland at the time the cake was requested? If I recall correctly, Ireland recognized all marriages between any two people in August 2015...?

Good point. Straight from Wikipedia for speed (and laziness!).

... Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Northern Ireland are the least advanced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, lagging behind Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland respectively. Northern Ireland was the last part of the United Kingdom to legalise same-sex sexual activity, the last to end a lifetime ban on blood donations by men who have sex with men and since 2015 is the only part of western Europe to prohibit same-sex marriage. Progress on LGBT rights has mainly been achieved during direct rule by the Government of the United Kingdom or through court action rather than local legislative reform, due to the veto power wielded by the anti-LGBT Democratic Unionist Party and its allies under Northern Ireland's power-sharing system. ILGA rates Northern Ireland as the worst place in the United Kingdom for LGBT people, with 74% equality of rights compared to 86% LGBT equality in the United Kingdom overall and 92% equality in Scotland. LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell describes Northern Ireland as 'the most homophobic place in western Europe' ...

Same-sex marriage is not legal in Northern Ireland despite five attempts to introduce it in the Northern Ireland Assembly, with a majority supporting legalisation in 2015 but the Democratic Unionist Party exercising its veto powers by filing a petition of concern. Around the time of the successful Irish same-sex marriage referendum in 2015, an Ipsos Mori poll carried out between 20 May and 8 June 2015 found that 68% of people in Northern Ireland supported same-sex marriage. Following the enactment of same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland became the only part of western Europe without same-sex marriage.

On 1 October 2012, the first Northern Ireland Assembly motion regarding same-sex marriage was introduced by Sinn Féin and the Greens. The motion was defeated 50-45.

On 29 April 2013, the second attempt to introduce same-sex marriage was defeated by the Northern Ireland Assembly 53-42, with the Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party voting against and Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Alliance and the Green Party voting in favour.

The third attempt on 29 April 2014 was defeated 51-43, with all nationalist MLAs (Sinn Féin and SDLP), most Alliance MPs and four unionists (two from NI21 and two from UUP) in favour. The remaining unionists (DUP, UUP, UKIP and Traditional Unionist Voice) and two Alliance MLAs voted against.

A fourth attempt on 27 April 2015 also failed, 49-47. Again, Sinn Féin, SDLP and five Alliance members voted in favour, while the DUP and all but four of the UUP members (who were granted a conscience vote) voted against.

On 2 November 2015, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted for a fifth time on the question of legalising same-sex marriage. Of the 105 legislators who voted, 53 were in favour and 51 against, the first time a majority of the Assembly had ever voted in favour of same-sex marriage. However the DUP again tabled a petition of concern signed by 32 members, preventing the motion from having any legal effect.

In February 2016 local LGBT publication The Gay Say started an online petition calling on the DUP to stop abusing the petition of concern against Marriage Equality legislation. On 20 September 2016 Gerry Carroll MLA, People Before Profit, presented the petition of 20,000 signatures to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

A December 2016 LucidTalk poll of 1,080 found that 65.22% of people surveyed supported the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. However, a majority of Unionist respondents was opposed to same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, with only 37.04% in favour (with support rising to 71% for Unionists aged between 18 and 24 years of age). By contrast, 92.92% of Nationalist/Republican respondents and 95.75% of Alliance/Green/PBP voters were in favour.

Legal challenges to same-sex marriage ban citing the Assembly's constant refusal to approve a marriage bill and the law that recognises marriages from other parts of the United Kingdom as civil partnerships, Amnesty International and local LGBT rights group Rainbow Project announced that a court challenge against Northern Ireland's same-sex marriage ban was likely to proceed on human rights grounds.

In January 2015, a same-sex couple married in England and residing in Northern Ireland filed a lawsuit to have their marriage locally recognised. In August 2017, the High Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a matter of social policy for the legislature to decide rather than the judiciary.


Best regards esias LL.M

Thanks for the info.
So it's legal in Ireland since 2015, still not legal in Northern Ireland.

"If Adam Rippon wins a medal, Mike Pence has to personally bake a gay wedding cake. Sorry, those are just the rules." -- Jess Dweck