After a four-year legal battle, Christian bakers, Ashers Baking Company, in Northern Ireland have won their case at the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom.
The owners of the Company came under fire for refusing an order for a cake from a gay rights activist who wanted them to make a cake saying “Support Gay Marriage.”
The court ruled Wednesday that Ashers acted lawfully and didn’t discriminate against anyone. The judges held it was the message the bakery objected to, not the customer.
“It is deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity, to deny someone a service because of that person’s race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or any of the other protected personal characteristics. But this is not what happened in this case,” the Supreme Court ruled.
In a response, Daniel McArthur, general manager of Ashers bakery, says it’s never been about denying service to anyone.
“We didn’t say no because of the customer. We’d served him before and we’d gladly serve him again. It was because of the message. This has always been because of the message,” he said.
The victory is a milestone for religious freedom in the UK.
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