The gay-rights activist Gareth Lee’s latest attempt to sue Christian bakers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for refusing to bake a cake with a political slogan, “Support Gay Marriage,” has been dismissed by the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR ruled Lee’s case inadmissible since he had not raised the European Convention of Human Rights “at any point in the domestic proceedings.”
In 2014, the McArthur family, which runs Ashers Baking Company, refused (on religious grounds) to make a cake for Lee with the aforementioned slogan. The case went all the way up to the U.K. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the bakery. As advocates in parallel cases in the U.S. have contended — think Masterpiece Cakeshop, Arlene’s Flowers, etc. — the primary defense was that the McArthur family did not refuse the customer because he was gay, but rather because the requested product contradicted their religious beliefs.
The U.K. Supreme Court’s decision was the correct one. It’s high time Lee moved on.