Christian bakers fined for refusing to bake pro-gay marriage cake launch appeal

 
Appeal: pedestrians and customers walk by a branch of Ashers Baking Company (Picture: Getty)
Getty
Alexandra Rucki28 May 2015

The owners of a Christian-run bakery at the centre of a discrimination case against a gay man are planning to appeal.

Ashers Baking Company was ordered to pay £500 after refusing to bake an order from gay rights activist Gareth Lee last year.

Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT campaign group Queer Space, requested a cake featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie with the message ‘Support Gay Marriage’.

He paid in full for the order, but said he felt feeling like a lesser person when he was told his request could not be fulfilled.

A Belfast court ruled Mr Lee had been discriminated against on the grounds of his sexual orientation.

Bakery owners the McArthur family said: "After much careful and prayerful consideration given to legal advice, we have decided to appeal the judgment handed down last Tuesday.

"We continue to insist that we have done nothing wrong as we have discriminated against no individual but rather acted according to what the Bible teaches regarding marriage.

"As many other people have already noted, Christian beliefs seem to have been trampled over in this judgment and we believe this only has negative effects for our society."

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