Christian Family face possible legal action

On what grounds would it be illegal bags?

Oops. Just checked the OP. "Support gay marriage". The bakers didn't have to support it, neither did anyone reading or even eating the cake. It was a phrase for the people ordering the cake. They were saying what they want. What the baker thinks about gay marriage is irrelevant.

Bakers do heterosexual cakes all the time for heterosexual weddings.

What was the phrase that the baker in question refused to do?

River, that would be illegal. Simple.

Heterosexual cakes!

Just because you advertise your bakery as producing cakes with icing words doesn't mean that you should have to accept all requests for any wording.

What if a middle-aged man asked for a cake, from a gay baker, with something like

'I support old geezers having as much sex as they can with barely legal-aged schoolgirls'.

Would the gay baker be discriminating against the heterosexual if he refused the order, on the grounds that he didn't believe in older men having sex with 16-year old schoolgirls. Perfectly legal sex but the gay baker just doesn't agree with it.

I wonder if the baker could redefine himself in some way to provide a get out?

The words kosher and halal describe those meat sellers as meat sellers who don't sell pork. A bakery that advertises itself as producing decorated cakes and cakes with words iced onto them is not the same at all. It has not specified certain words or phrases it won't do so customers are entitled to expect it to do whatever is required.

As a generally left-leaning non-believer it's not often that I find myself on the side of a fundamentalist Northern Irish protestant!

Obviously the judge knows the law better than I do but still think that they didn't discriminate against a gay customer - refusing to add a slogan that you don't agree with is/should not be against the law IMO.

Kosher/Halal butchers are rightly not expected to provide pork products to Christians - one could argue that if you operate a meat business in the high street then you should offer pork or you're discriminating against a large section of the population who are being denied an everyday product.

That's very interesting, Elegran, particularly the part about Revelation actually being a thinly disguised political tract. They were at it even in those days...

absent but it has now been devalued to 616 , not nearly as dramatic.

Before opening this thread I noticed that it had reached 444 posts. Do you think it will go on long enough to reach 666?

Or even no sex drives at all.

ohdear re your 'theory', wouldn't 'nature' have simply created these nursemaid creatures with very low sex drives? Less convoluted than creating them to be homosexuals, I would have thought.

There are thousands and thousands of businesses owned by people of many faiths.
They always have the choice to close their businesses.

I havent got time to read all the posts from today.
But I see my name mentioned by Ohdear. 14.55 First paragraph.
If the law has changed, then businesses of all the faiths will have to decided how they proceed. Some if not many would close.

4th paragraph. No one can be forced into a faith.
The law takes care of certain things. I think that answers that part.

I wasn't setting out to 'prove' anything, GrannyTwice.

Just because you've never come across that type of person doesn't mean they don't exist.

Vitriol?

Yes. Bandwaggoning. That's exactly what it is.

ohdear, it's a theory.

Well I am delighted to say that I have never never ever known anyone who would behave as the 'one or two people' you have come across Ana. But even if I had had that misfortune, what on earth does that prove in the context of this discussion?

Surely, if someone regards any other person of whatever sexuality – gay man or much younger trophy blonde – as a fashion accessory, this does not constitute friendship.

jinglbellsfrocks--the gay uncle theory may sound far fetched to you, but it is a well accepted theory. Go and look it up. Sorry if it does not fit in with the way you see the world, but I expect a lot of things do not fit. And modern day nutrition etc has nothing to do with why post menopausal live past thier child bearing days. Many woman, once safely past the terrors of child birth, lived long lives. Nothing to do with better health, everything to do with evolution. Also nothing to do you liking the theory or not!!!!

And could someone please tell me who has a gay friend as a fashion accessory?? Really rude!

I have actually come across one or two people who seemed to be just lying in wait for the next bandwagon to come along so they could leap on it, e.g. claiming that some of their best friends were gay/black/disabled or whatever issue was causing controversy in the media at the time.

One of them was an old school friend, and I know her claims were tenuous to say the least.

I can't help but wonder however what circles some posters move in where they regularly come across gay people being used as fashion accessories.

Once someone uses the phrase 'usual suspects' you know they've lost the argument.