Two British Christians who refused to do their jobs for gay people have lost their European Court of Human Rights appeal.

Lillian Ladele and Gary McFarlane both argued their beliefs meant they couldn’t work with gay and lesbian couples and that forcing them to do so amounted to discrimination.

But the court today (15 January) ruled against them with judges saying their rights had not been infringed by their employers.

Ladele was a marriage registrar for Islington Borough Council in north London who refused to conduct civil partnership ceremonies for same-sex couples when they were legalized in 2004.

In 2007 bosses changed the way she was employed, so she could no longer choose to avoid civil partnerships.

She argued Islington bosses were forcing her to choose between her religious beliefs and her job. She won her case in 2008 but an Employment Tribunal Appeal hearing reversed that decision in December of that year and that new ruling in the council’s favor was upheld in 2009 by the British Court of Appeal.

Gary McFarlane’s worked for relationship counseling organization Relate at a time when it was making big strides to include lesbian and gay couples as well as heterosexuals.

He was a sex therapist – which Relate describes as ‘unshockable’ counselors dedicated to people improving their sex lives to help them improve their relationship.

But as a Christian, McFarlane said he wouldn’t be prepared to work with gay and lesbian couples in that way if the subject ever came up.

He was suspended in October 2007 and eventually dismissed for gross misconduct in March 2008.

His case was turned down by an internal appeal board within Relate, then by an Employment Tribunal. An appeal also failed and in 2010 the Court of Appeal twice refused to allow him further appeals.

Both took their cases to the European Court of Human Rights in September last year.

They were joined by two other Christians, Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin both of whom were banned from wearing their crucifixes at work.

Eweida won her case although Chaplin also lost her’s.

Speaking before the judgments, experts predicted the decision about religious people being able to refuse services on the basis of sexuality would set a far-reaching precedent, potentially effecting employment rights across Europe and – as it turns out – benefiting LGBT equality.

Responding to the ruling Ben Summerskill of leading UK gay rights organization Stonewall said: ‘Today’s judgment rightly confirms that it’s completely unacceptable in 2013 for public servants to pick and choose who they want to serve on the basis of sexual orientation.

‘Gay people contribute over £40bn to the cost of public services in this country. They’re entitled to nothing less than equal treatment from those services, even from public servants who don’t happen to like gay people.’