Gay couple turned away from guest house – the rationale for discrimination
Michael Black and John Morgan from Brampton, Cambridgeshire, were turned away from a B&B in Berkshire recently. This is of course illegal and they reported the matter to the police. The B&B owner, Susanne Wilkinson, explains her “moral reasoning”.
“I don’t see why I should change my mind and my beliefs I’ve held for years just because the government should force it on me.
“The property is not a hotel. It operates as a guest house and private home.”
Mr Wilkinson disputed the couple’s claim that they had not been given a friendly welcome.
“We are Christians and we believe our rights don’t have to be subordinated. We have religious freedom and we are not judging that but we are not prepared to have that sort of activity under our roof,” he said. “These people are very organised and we have already been inundated with abusive calls and emails. It is really sad that people act like that.” Thames Valley police said: “We are aware of the incident … The call has been logged as a homophobic incident. As the people live outside of the force area, we have asked Cambridgeshire constabulary to speak to the individuals concerned.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/21/gay-couple-refused-hotel-room
As usual, a few militant “we speak for all gay people!” activists are making a mountain out of nothing, and giving the rest of us a bad name. This B&B is run by deeply religious people (whether you think they are narrow minded bigots or not, it’s their views and their house). So what if we can’t stay there? For goodness sakes….. There are thousands of other B&Bs in this country which will take our pink pounds!
Is this a case of a few militant activists making a mountain of nothing? Surely it is a case of someone thinking that their religious belief gives them the right to ignore the law of the land! I would not dream of telling this woman that she does not have the right to believe whatever nonsense she wants but, and this is the point, she chose to open her house as a B&B. By doing so she has to conform to a whole raft of legislation and she cannot pick and choose which bits to follow and which to ignore. She could claim it is against her religion to provide fire exits or fire extinguishers!
When I saw this woman interviewed it was obvious she basically did not understand what she had done wrong. She said that if she had known they were a same sex couple, given enough notice she would have happily provided two single rooms. She simply did not understand how insulting this would be to a loving couple in what appears to be a stable long term relationship.
We now have the shadow home secretary saying that this was an acceptable stance for the woman to take. I dread to think how much damage will be done to hard won rights of equality if the Tories win the next election.
The woman didn’t refuse them entry to the B&B for religious reasons, she did it because she’s a bigot.
There are lots of things in the bible that Christians ignore, because they don’t make sense. They choose which bits to believe, and which to ignore. People choose to believe the bit about homosexuality being a sin because that’s what they themselves believe. They hide behind the bible instead of being truthful and admitting they’re homophobes.
The bible also says people aren’t supposed to wear clothes made from mixed fibres. But I bet she doesn’t bat an eyelid when someone wearing the “wrong” clothes wants to stay the night.
The bible says you shouldn’t work on the sabbath. I bet she has no problem working though, and has no problem with guests who work on the wrong day.
We shouldn’t tolerate people using religion as an excuse for their own prejudices.
According to some other sites, the couple are not actually joined in holy matrimony (or at least the same sex equivalent).
So it appears to be a Christian B+B dealing with an unmarried couple and their booking of a double bed.