A human rights lawyer has warned of dire consequences if a gay man successfully sues Christian bakers who refused to bake him a cake.

Gareth Lee is claiming damages from Belfast bakery Ashers and its owners for refusing his order for a cake depicting Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie and the slogan "Support Gay Marriage". The bakery is owned by Colin and Karen McArthur who are Christians who object to the principle of gay marriage, and probably also co-habiting muppets. Lee, backed by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI), has sued for £500 damages for injury to his feelings and is also seeking a declaration from the McArthurs that he was sexually discriminated against.

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But in an opinion paid for by The Christian Institute, Matrix Chambers' Aidan O'Neill QC has warned that a victory for Lee could open the floodgates to a Northern Ireland in which people will be forced to endorse views which they bitterly oppose. Not only will tearful homophobes be compelled to knead dough into loaves shaped like sodomy, O'Neill argues that there will be no defence available for:

• "A Muslim printer refusing a contract requiring the printing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed"
• "An atheist web designer refusing to design a website presenting as scientific fact the claim that God made the world in six days"
• "A Christian baker refusing to take an order to make a cake celebrating Satanism" (almost, but not quite, as bad as Gayism)
• "A T-shirt company owned by lesbians declining to print T-shirts with a message describing gay marriage as an 'abomination'"

O'Neill clarifies twice in his paper that the examples "have been presented to me", presumably by his client The Christian Institute. Which is generous of him, although his eagerness to avoid taking credit does give the unfortunate impression that he regards the list as absolutely frothing.

In a statement given to RollOnFriday, the ECNI said the case raises "issues of public importance" regarding the extent to which suppliers "can refuse service on grounds of sexual orientation, religious belief and political opinion". However it did not dispute O'Neill's predictions about the Northern Irish lesbian T-shirt-manufacturing sector, saying, "we do not wish to prejudice the Court’s consideration of the issues or the outcome of its consideration by debating the details of the case in public".