There has been a minor kerfuffle lately here over the refusal of a Berkshire bed and breakfast owner to allow a gay couple to stay there. The Conservative shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, says that he believes that B&B owners using their own homes as business premises who have religious objections to homosexuality should be allowed to refuse accommodation to same sex couples. Of course, he does not believe this should extend to those premises such as hotels or larger B&Bs which are not mostly private homes. The difficulty is that refusing accommodation to same-sex couples is against the law in the United Kingdom. Grayling voted for this law when it was passed. There is no clause that would allow any hotel or B&B owner to refuse accommodation to same-sex couples on the grounds of religion.
My only comment is that I would have a bit more sympathy for the Christian B&B owners if they required a marriage certificate for any mixed-sex couple who booked accommodation there. As they do not so require, they have no leg to stand on and should be prosecuted for discrimination.
As no B&B could continue in business if they required proof of marriage before accommodating a mixed-sex couple—who carries their marriage certificate with them when travelling?—this will not stand and business owners who discriminate against lesbians and gay men will be prosecuted.
In this season of Easter, where the Christian message is that even God himself could suffer and die for our salvation, haters cannot use religion as a bullet-proof vest.
I was pretty annoyed when I read the initial news story, and had exactly the same response I had when the regulations surrounding adoption, to include same-sex couples, were changed: you (the B&B owners, the RC church adoption agencies) can keep your religious views, you have that liberty. You do NOT have the liberty to use those views to pick and choose who you will offer your services to.
I was pleased that HM Government told the adoption people that they were sorry that they felt they could no longer continue, but equality for everyone means precisely that. I hope the same continues in the B&B trade.
I was rilly annoyed to read about this tory MP spouting off support. His voting record is good, but that goes for naught if he wants to make exceptions.
As Desmond Tutu pointed out, “ALL” does not mean “some” or “the people I like”
The Tory MP has backtracked, saying he was misunderstood or sommat…the rest of the Tory party has condemned what he said. They are scared witless that affluent gay voters who might be thinking of voting Tory will be scared away.
A judge has upheld one of the RC adoption agencies, by the way. I know it’s the Daily Mail, but sad nonetheless. I suspect that his ruling will be overturned but it will take a while. Most of the other agencies have cut themselves loose from the SWB in order to continue their work.
I suppose that governments now have another good reason not to entrust children to Roman Catholic adoption agencies.
This is ridiculous. What if sisters want to share a room? Or a father and son? I’m just not following where the whole history of travelers who’ve decided to explain themselves to innkeepers about what they’re going to do once they get behind closed doors is about… my father and I stayed in a hotel once, in the same room. So?
The whole thing is really silly. Grayling was speaking on his own, without Cameron’s knowledge, to a right-wing think-tank. I suspect he’ll be sacked as shadow home secretary or, if Cameron doesn’t think that’s wise before the election, he won’t be appointed Home Secretary if the Tories win the election. Every political party has its troglodytes—the Tories more than most. However, they are on the way down even among the Tories and it’s very unlikely that any of this will affect the next Parliament.
He’ll have to be disciplined, however. I await news of exactly how.
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He’ll have to be disciplined, however. I await news of exactly how
being sentenced to stay at a B&B owned (and largely patronised) by gay men, for a week, would have a nice Mikado-esque punishment-fit-the-crime air to it, don’t you think?
Much too good for him.
I would sentence him to a week’s stay in a hotel which is simultaneously hosting an Amway convention. It happened to me in the 1980’s when New York Mensa had its yearly convention in the same hotel as an Amway and when we were stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes, half Mensans and half Amwayans, that has in my mind been the model of what hell was like.