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Belfast Bakery Loses Appeal Over Refusal of Gay Rights Cake


FILE- In this March 26, 2015, photo, the store front of Ashers Baking Company is seen in Belfast, Northern Ireland. On Monday, Ashers lost its appeal against a 2015 court ruling that the business discriminated against a homosexual customer by refusing to
FILE- In this March 26, 2015, photo, the store front of Ashers Baking Company is seen in Belfast, Northern Ireland. On Monday, Ashers lost its appeal against a 2015 court ruling that the business discriminated against a homosexual customer by refusing to

A Belfast bakery has lost its appeal against a 2015 court ruling that the business discriminated against a homosexual customer by refusing to bake a cake bearing the message “support gay marriage.”

Monday's judgment against Ashers Baking Co. found that the family-run chain was wrong to treat gay customers any differently from heterosexuals. The Ashers directors argued they were happy to bake goods for anyone but could not put messages on their products at odds with their Christian beliefs.

The Northern Ireland Equality Commission pursued the lawsuit against Ashers on behalf of the spurned customer, who had ordered the cake for a gay rights event. Monday's judgment by the three-judge Court of Appeal found that the bakery had discriminated against the customer and violated British human rights law.

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