Since the Bulls (the Christian couple who refused to allow a gay couple to stay at their guest house) lost their appeal last week, there has been a fresh round of complaints by the usual suspects that gay rights have been held up over religious ones, feeding the ongoing narrative about an "attack on religion".
The reality, as ever, is different. The law in question here is the Equality Act 2010. It doesn't place one set of freedoms or rights as more important than another, it simply says that it is illegal to discriminate on various grounds, including sexuality, and religion.The law is actually one-sided here, but not in favour of gay people, or against the religious. The act places a duty not to discriminate on those who offer a service to the public, but places no such duty on the public themselves. In other words, guests can choose which hotel they want to stay at, but hotels cannot choose their guests (well, not based on their sexuality or their religion anyway).
What that means is that if a gay hotel owner had turned the Bulls away because they are Christians, the hotel owners would have been just as guilty of discrimination as the Bulls were found to be. The law applies equally to all of us, and that's exactly what secularism is all about.
While I agree with you (just discovered this blog and am enjoying the posts so far), I am lead to believe that there are actually gay hotels that only cater for gay people.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why these hotels exist (a safe haven in the past), I saw the point raised in relation to this case actually - they could be done for discrimination against heterosexuals. I have to agree with that, of course.
I've heard the argument from the gay side that this wouldn't be welcome, particularly from a bar/drinking spot point of view where a bar becomes popular with straight women & then the straight men follow, but I can't bring myself to accept it due to my views on equality over all.
I don't suppose you can either?
I didn't know there were gay-only hotels. I know of course that there are gay bars, clubs etc which cater mainly for that market, but they don't ban anyone from going in.
DeleteI think it's fair enough for a private club to select it's members if it wants to, but I agree with you that if you're open to the public, you can't then pick and choose.