Response to the Asher Bakery vs Equality Commission.

I read something today that has really annoyed and upset me and I wanted to talk about it, because I think if we don't talk about these things then... well, it only leads to bad places.

I don't know if any of you have seen this particular news story, but there is this Christian bakery in Northern Ireland called Asher's Baking Company. Some time ago they were approached by a customer who wanted this image on a cake:

Being a Christian run bakery the company chose to decline to make the cake and the customer had it made elsewhere. After some time the company was contacted by the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland saying that the company had discriminated against the customer on the grounds of their sexual orientation. The letter asked the company to outline what actions it would take to compensate the customer within seven days or legal action would be taken against the bakery.

Ok, so that's the story. Here's what I think.

Malachi O'Hara, from the Rainbow Project says that if you run a publicly trading business that your business is open to all of the public.

Meanwhile Andrew Muir, a homosexual mayor somewhere in the North, who the cake was for, said: "Businesses should not be allowed to pick and choose who they serve."* (we'll come back to this later)

This is not an issue of the customer's sexual orientation.

That's what it is being made to be, but I am certain that Asher's bakery have severed many homosexual people cakes in their time in business (they are around since 1992 after all).

This is an issue of the image that the customer wanted on the cake. It has been mentioned by some people, opposing Asher's Bakery, that if it were an anti-Racism slogan that was ordered they would have no problem making it.

That is probably true, but as the manager of the bakery has stated they have refused to bake cakes on previous occasions that went against the beliefs of the Christian owners, including refusing to bake pornographic cakes and cakes containing fowl language.

No one has kicked up a fuss about this, and rightly so. As a business owner what you stock (or in this situation, what cake images you create) are up to you. This bakery refuses to make certain kinds of cakes. It is not an issue of equality, it is an issue of choosing the wrong bakery.

For example, were I a blacksmith and someone came to me wanting to fashion a sword, I would be in my right to say no to that person.

If I were a clothes maker and someone came to me and asked me to make pink jeans, I would be within my right to say no to that person.

If I were a farmer who sold in a farmer's market and someone told me they wanted to see carrots on my stall, and I didn't want to grow carrots, that is my right.

If I were a graphic designer and a neo-Nazi group came to me and wanted me to design them a poster and I declined, that is my right.

If I were a writer and a certain politician approached me to write them a speech in defence of ideals I opposed and I declined, that is my right.

I could go on, but you are getting the picture.

The bakery did not look at the customer and say "You are homosexual, therefore I will not serve you." The bakery took the order and they considered it and decided it was a direction they did not feel their business was comfortable going in. That is their right.

I wonder were it the other way around and it was a homosexual activist that owned the bakery and a Christian came in wanting to order a cake with the text of Genesis 2:23 on it and the shop refused because it goes against their stance, or their definition of marriage, would as big a deal be made about it.

Somehow I doubt it. I bet the Christian making a claim to the Equality Commission would be told it is the bakery's prerogative what cakes it chooses to make and what cakes it decides to decline.

So much for 'Equality' Commission eh?

In sum. I think discrimination of any other person, based on anything (creed, colour, belief, ethnicity, gender and orientation) is terrible and the Equality Commission is a great asset to the Northern Irish community. However, this issue is not one of discrimination, it is one of a businesses choice of what products it does and does not serve. The person involved was not turned away because they were gay, but because the bakery did not feel it could be involved in something that went against its deeply held beliefs as a company. The fact that the 'Equality' Commission is bringing legal action against the business is an absurdity. They should cease and desist, and be responsible members of their society; targeting real issues of inequality and injustice. Asher's bakery has done nothing wrong in refusing to create something that it feels morally it cannot create. That decision should be respected, and even applauded. Clearly it would be easier (and more profitable) to do whatever is ordered. It takes a strong business to know where it stands and be firm in that stance.

Because this is such an emotive issue I am sure this article will get a lot of slack, but we need to think clearly about the issue in question, not get emotional about it and decide the customer was discriminated against just because he felt like he was, or because the shop refused a product addition to their line up. We need to be clear minded when dealing with sensitive issues. That's what I am hoping for when people read this.

The zeitgeist is against people saying things like this, and I understand that, but I believe things need to be said sometimes, and this is one of those times. 

*I don't believe this particular episode is a case of a business choosing what kind of people it does and does not serve, as Muir has put it, as I have said this is an issue of the products a business does or does not choose to serve, not the customers. However, Muir is terribly mistaken in his comments. Everywhere we go we see signs like:

"Management reserve the right to refuse admission."

Yet, we don't see the Equality Commission, or even Mr Muir himself claiming that refusals to certain people is discrimination. Businesses are sometimes confined by law when decided who they serve. A pub has to pick and choose who it serves for example.

It appears Mr Muir's comments are born out of emotion, and not out of any rational thought. Both sides of this debate would do well to put emotions and personal feelings aside in order to see issues for the size that they are. This bakery did not engage in discrimination against a person, but if we let emotions get tangled up in it then we will blow tiny issues out of proportion and turn on people, suing them when they have done nothing wrong except express their right to refuse to stock certain items in their business; which they are completely entitled to do.

Any questions, as always you can ask them anonymously at ask.fm/Wavey1111

Go mbeannaí Dia dhuit.