Christian campaigner urges change in equality law to avoid Ashers' gay cake 'mistake'

Christian campaigner Simon Calvert stated that the equality laws in the U.K. must include "reasonable accommodation" to avoid repeating the controversy over Northern Ireland's gay cake case.

A district court ruled last year that Daniel and Amy McArthur of Ashers Baking Company violated the equality laws in the U.K. for refusing to bake a pro-gay marriage cake. The Court of Appeal judges in Belfast upheld the ruling against the McArthurs last month.

Calvert is the deputy director of the Christian Institute, the organization that supported the McArthurs in their legal battle, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

In a statement he gave at a free speech conference in London, Calvert stated that the McArthurs should not have been forced to make the cake that included the slogan "support gay marriage." He noted that the family's objection was due to their deeply held Christian beliefs.

He added that the equality laws can be changed because it was written by politicians who are capable of making mistakes.

"The law was not handed down from Heaven on tablets of stone. It was written by civil servants and politicians and campaigners and people make mistakes. That is why the law can be amended," said Calvert.

"Equality law is just another law and if it's causing injustice and misery, if it's taking away freedom of speech and freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, then it should be changed," he added.

Calvert proposed that a "reasonable accommodation" written into the equality law would require the court to consider both sides in the event that there is a "clash of rights."

"In cases like Ashers, it might result in a fairer and arguably more humane outcome than what we got in Belfast," he stated.

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said that he once believed that the ruling against Ashers was right but he now disagrees with the verdict. He added that people should be allowed to "discriminate against ideas which they disagree with."

Northern Ireland's Attorney General John Larkin has applied for leave last week to appeal to the Supreme Court in London to review the Ashers case.