Guardian 15 hours ago,

"A Christian walks into a Muslim sign writer's shop and orders a placard. He says it should carry a cartoon of the prophet and the slogan Muslims Go Home. The sign writer is deeply offended and says he cannot execute the order. The customer is outraged at the discrimination, is supported by the equality commission, sues, and the sign writer is fined £500 plus costs.

I think most people would find such a saga absurd. Why did the Christian not acknowledge a difference of opinion and go elsewhere for his placard? Yet that is the gist of the case this week against Mr and Mrs McArthur, owners of Ashers Baking Company in Belfast. They could not bring themselves to ice a cake with the slogan, Support Gay Marriage, which they strongly oppose and which is still illegal in Northern Ireland. It had been ordered by a gay rights activist, Gareth Lee, in honour of Northern Ireland's first gay mayor, Andrew Muir of North Down."

"The judge took the view that the refusal to write the slogan was direct discrimination against Lee's sexual orientation. The McArthurs denied this, retorting that they sell cakes to many gay people; it was the slogan that neither they nor their staff could write. They would have felt the same had Lee been heterosexual. The judge chose to disagree, saying in effect that their action was no different from a restaurant refusing to serve a black person. To my mind, a better parallel would be the Catholic Herald refusing to publish an anti-Catholic tirade."