Not much black-letter law this week but quite a few odds & ends: gay cake(?), the seal of the confessional, gender-selective abortion…

“Bake me a cake / As fast as you can”

There were several media reports about what the BBC described as the “Gay cake row” in Northern Ireland. (We should say that the sexual preferences of cakes is a matter beyond the technical scope of this blog but it could have been worse: someone might have dubbed it “Cakegate”.) In short, the proprietors of Ashers Bakery refused to bake a cake bearing the slogan “Support Gay Marriage” and the Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie; and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland is supporting legal action against the bakery for alleged discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and (possibly) on grounds of political opinion. Continue reading →