Ashers Bakery refuses to bake another cake that promotes gay marriage

Ashers Baking Company, a bakery owned by a Christian couple, has reportedly refused to bake an engagement cake that contains a slogan celebrating same-sex marriage.

Grainne McCann, a London-based woman from Northern Ireland, said she placed an online order for an engagement cake for her friend, Joe Palmer, who is marrying his partner, Andy Wong, this summer.

The order came just six months after a court in Northern Ireland ruled that the bakery violated equality laws for rejecting a previous order for a gay marriage cake.

"The wording we requested was 'Gay marriage rocks! Happy engagement, Andy and Joe! Lots of love xxx.' We were thrilled when Ashers accepted our online order, and full payment of £23.40 plus £20 P&P, but the next day they sent the cancellation note and a refund," said McCann, as reported by Belfast Telegraph.

"My gut instinct told me the cake was refused because it celebrated gay marriage," she added.

McCann decided to prove her point by ordering a christening cake for her goddaughter Leila.

"Ashers couldn't have been happier to make that cake," she recounted. "A woman from the company even offered to drive it to its destination in Dublin as a favour, because she was going that way," she went on to say.

McCann managed to purchase a cake from a London bakery, but she said that she felt angry about Ashers' different attitude towards gay people

She expressed her belief that the Ashers risks being sued again because of its decision to turn down an order based on the sexual orientation of the customer.

However, McCann said that she and her friends have no plans to sue the bakery because they want to focus on the wedding.

The owners of Ashers, Daniel and Amy McArthur, were found guilty of illegal discrimination in 2015 for refusing to bake a cake that contained a slogan promoting gay marriage. In October, Belfast's Court of Appeal upheld the lower court decision, arguing that baking a cake with such a slogan does not signify a support gay marriage.

Daniel said that he was disappointed with the ruling because the court did not consider how the conscience of Christians affect how they run their business.

The McArthurs insisted that they are not homophobic, and they vowed to continue standing by their Christian beliefs.