NORTHERN IRELAND: Anti-Gay Christian Bakers Lose Bid To Take Appeal To Supreme Court

The Guardian reports:

Northern Ireland’s attorney general cannot refer back to the supreme court the case of a local bakery fined for refusing to bake a gay-themed cake. John Larkin QC’s legal bid to get the supreme court to review court rulings against Ashers Bakery was deemed to have come in too late, Northern Ireland’s lord chief justice said on Wednesday.

In October the court of appeal in Belfast upheld a conviction that found Ashers guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a pro-same sex marriage themed cake. The family-owned firm in the original case was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to the local gay rights activist Gareth Lee, whose legal action was backed by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

Lee had tried to buy a cake depicting the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie below the motto “Support gay marriage” for an event to mark International Day Against Homophobia in 2014. In his ruling on Wednesday the lord chief justice, Declan Morgan, said that the attorney general’s move came after the case against the McArthur family-owned firm had ended.