Albeit that Lee  v Ashers Baking Company Ltd and others is a discrimination claim related to the provision of goods and services, the Supreme Court’s ruling shows how direct discrimination works, i.e. A treats B less favourably than A treats, or would treat others, because of a protected characteristic in like-for-like circumstances. The McArthurs own Ashers Bakery. They are Christians who hold the religious belief that the only form of marriage consistent with Biblical teaching and acceptable to God is that between a man and a woman. They refused to bake a cake for Lee, a gay man, with an iced message ‘Support Gay Marriage’. The SC observed that the refusal was not because of Lee’s sexual orientation, but because of the message. The SC rejected the argument that the message was associated with Lee’s sexual orientation; it was not inseparable, as people of all sexual orientations, gay, straight or bi-sexual, can and do support gay marriage. There had been no discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, because Ashers would also have refused to supply a cake with the same message to a heterosexual customer.

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