Ashers bakery: Eight years on, is gay cake saga finally over?

Yesterday the court ruled that a complaint by Gareth Lee that his human rights had been infringed when a Christian-owned bakery refused to make him a cake with the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’ was “inadmissible”.

The ECHR said Mr Lee “had not invoked” his human rights “at any point” in the UK courts before bringing the long-running case to Europe.

Mr Lee was attempting to overturn a ruling by the UK Supreme Court in 2018, that the bakery discriminated against the proposed slogan – but not Mr Lee personally – when it refused to make him the cake.

He then referred the case to the ECHR, claiming the Supreme Court had failed to give appropriate weight to him under the European Convention of Human Rights.

But yesterday the ECHR said: “Convention arguments must be raised explicitly or in substance before the domestic authorities. The applicant had not invoked his convention rights at any point in the domestic proceedings.”

However, Mr Lee’s lawyer, Ciaran Moynagh, said they were not necessarily finished yet and would consider bringing the case back to the UK courts.

“Given the position the European court has taken, we will now consider whether a fresh domestic case is progressed,” he said.

Peter Lynas, former barrister and UK director of the Evangelical Alliance, sounded hopeful – but not certain – that the case was closed for good.

“After almost eight years, the saga of the not-so-gay cake case may finally now be over,” he said, arguing that yesterday’s ruling “protects us all from compelled speech”.

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European Court rules ‘gay cake’ complaint is inadmissible

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