Omagh man disappointed after ‘gay cake’ case thrown out by European court

A TYRONE gay rights activist at the centre of the long-running ‘gay cake’ court battle has been left disappointed after his case was ruled to be inadmissible at the European Court of Human Rights.

Gareth Lee, originally from Omagh, began legal action in 2014 after the Belfast-based baker, Ashers, refused to make him a cake with the slogan, ‘Support Gay Marriage’. The bakery claimed the slogan contravened their Christian beliefs.

A long-running series of legal cases began, and ended when the European Court said that Mr Lee’s challenges had failed to exhaust all options in the UK courts.

The judges said that Mr Lee did not invoke his rights under the European Convention of Human Rights during any stage of the legal proceedings in the UK courts.

“For a complaint to be admissible, the Convention arguments must be raised explicitly or in substance before the domestic authorities,” the judges added.

“By relying solely on domestic law, the applicant had deprived the domestic courts of the opportunity to address any Convention issues raised, instead asking the court to usurp the role of the domestic courts.

“Because he had failed to exhaust domestic remedies, the application was inadmissible.”

Mr Lee, who now lives in Belfast, had argued that by refusing to fulfil the order, the baker had discriminated against him on the grounds of his political beliefs and sexual orientation.

He has expressed his disappointment at the ruling, saying that his case had been lost on a technicality.

“None of us should be expected to have to figure out the beliefs of a company’s owners before going into their shop or paying for their services. Everyone has freedom of expression and it must equally apply to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people,” he said.

He also expressed disappointment at not getting the opportunity to pursue the core issues involved in the case in the European Court.

Director of the Rainbow Project, John O’Doherty, said there remained questions around what protections exist for LGBTQIA people when accessing facilities, goods and services.

He said the organisation expressed their thanks to Mr Lee and stood in solidarity with him.

But the leader of the DUP, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, has welcomed the decision of the court. He described it as a welcome victory for “freedom of expression and belief” and said that it reinforced that the refusal to fulfil the order was because of the message and not in any way related to the customer.