Updated again 28 July
Another Bed and Breakfast owner, Susanne Wilkinson, has lost her case at the Court of Appeal, but has been given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, where her case will be joined with that of Peter and Hazelmary Bull, and heard on 9 October.
Media reports:
Telegraph Christian B&B owner ordered to compensate gay couple takes fight to Supreme Court
Guardian B&B owner who turned away gay couple loses appeal
BBC B&B owner who turned away gay couple loses appeal
The full text of the judgment can be found here, or as a PDF file over here.
The earlier court hearing was discussed last October on the UK Human Rights Blog by Alasdair Henderson in The thorny issue of religious belief and discrimination law (again).
Updates
Frank Cranmer at Law & Religion UK has a detailed discussion of the new judgment, in Gay couples, B&B and human rights again: Black & Anor v Wilkinson.
Alasdair Henderson at the UK Human Rights Blog has Second Christian B&B case headed for the Supreme Court
WHY in the world would someone who felt so strongly about ***other people’s sex lives*** go into the BED&Bfkst *business* in the first place? That’s what boggles my mind. Oy vey!
Good point JCF – it is really the last line of business suitable for someone who wants to control everyone else’s sex life!
JCF and Jeremy good point !
However, Freud and psychoanalysis come to our recue on this one — remember ? !
Not to mention Melanie Klein….
Has the Christian Institute ever won a court case? They appear to regard the best proof of their faith to be repeatedly smashing themselves against the rocks. Do they assume that our justice system is entirely outside the purview of their God? Because a more reasonable believer might think that the universal failure of our legal system to find in their favour was some sort of message…
Interested Observer, I found the Catholic Herald interview with Ben Summerskill (linked in a TA post higher up) very interesting in that respect, in particular the paragraph: “One of the most interesting meetings we had, five years ago, was with the Evangelical Alliance,” he says. “He and some of his colleagues regarded us as being on some sort of secularist mission. We were talking about protections in the commercial services, and he said: ‘You must have been very pleased because that’s one more nail in the coffin of Christianity.’ And it had never crossed either my or my colleague’s mind.… Read more »
Could you imagine some one asking Mr and Mrs Smith to show their wedding lines when they turn up at a hotel!