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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to not feel very sorry for these arseholes?

111 replies

lagertops · 19/09/2013 17:44

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424983/Christian-B-B-owners-refused-gay-couple-close-business.html

Sorry to link the DM, but I'm just so mad after reading this article, especially the 'Best rated' comments.

I wouldn't wish death threats on anyone, but I really feel that if you're going to bring your religion into your (hospitality) livelihood and alienate customers, then duh! It's not very good for business!

'Shivering and hungry.' Do me a favour.

OP posts:
TiggyD · 19/09/2013 20:21

YANBU.

hermioneweasley · 19/09/2013 20:32

I have no problem with them losing business or having huge legal fees - they brought it on themselves entirely.

Obviously death threats and porn are unacceptable.

friday16 · 19/09/2013 20:34

The main reason they've gone bust is because they could only fill half their rooms. You don't have to be a genius to realise that being a bigot will harm your business amongst non-bigots, even if those non-bigots aren't the object of your bigotry (ie, I'm white, but I wouldn't stay in a "no blacks allowed" hotel were such a thing to exist).

They also decided to appeal a case which had been settled. The Christian Legal Centre, who so far as one can see have never managed to actually win a case and have usually ended up losing humiliatingly, encouraged them to take the case to the Court of Appeal, when (a) they had absolutely no chance to win and (b) it would just make the case a great deal more high-profile.

So it turns out that the market for a shit hotel whose core audience is elderly bigots, where anyone staying will rapidly realise that their hosts (and for people filled with Christian Joy, don't they look utterly miserable?) are loons, isn't enough to stay in business in 2013. Who would have thought it?

According to the recently published British Social Attitudes survey, about 28% of Britons think that same-sex relations are wholly or mostly wrong. But the majority of those people are over sixty: 41% of people born in the 1940s disapprove, while only 18% of those born in the 1980s do. Running a B&B in Cornwall while limiting your guests to those who remember rationing is not a long-term business plan.

Icelollycraving · 19/09/2013 20:41

Great post friday. When I said ^ I didn't think it would have gone to court,I meant it wouldn't have got the amount of coverage in the press,particularly DM etc.

AlannaPartridge · 19/09/2013 20:54

Yes. Exactly right, Friday.

Jan49 · 19/09/2013 22:11

I have no sympathy for them. They've got away with applying their prejudice to their hotel guests for 3 decades and they must be of retirement age now anyway.

I'm sure they had plenty of unmarried heterosexual couples stay and just thought they were married, so they were kidding themselves if they thought they were really applying their moral standard of only married couples sharing a bed.

JCDenton · 19/09/2013 22:16

I agree with Friday, nobody to blame but themselves.

As an aside, I can never resist reading Daily Mail comments even though they make me angry. I like to play 'guess the highest rated comment'. Yes, I do know that this is what they want but I can't help myself

kali110 · 19/09/2013 22:21

How did they get away with running the b&b how they did for so long?

friday16 · 19/09/2013 22:35

How did they get away with running the b&b how they did for so long?

They were probably behaving legally until sexuality became a protected characteristic for the provision of services under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. After that, it was just a matter of time before someone sued them. They then fell into the clutches of the Christian Legal Centre, whose speciality is tilting at windmills on behalf of people too dim to see that they're almost certain to lose, who offered to help them defend, and then appeal (FFS) a case that was completely doomed. They should have apologied, paid fifty quid into court and got on with running a B&B; instead, they wanted to be martyrs. They're now upset that they've become martyrs.

friday16 · 19/09/2013 22:42

By the way, for those with a taste for the ludicrous antics of the Christian Right in fighting doomed court cases and then using their defeat to claim the status of oppressed martyrs, this is just hilarious.

namechangesforthehardstuff · 19/09/2013 22:46

Gosh Friday is there a 'post of the week' prize I can give you? Would you settle for Cake?

timidviper · 19/09/2013 22:59

I don't agree with their approach but hate bigotry in all forms and wonder why it is ok for hotels to advertise themselves as "all-male gay hotels" for example and that is ok.

I live near a seaside town with a thriving gay scene and there are hotels here that I could not stay at because I am a straight woman. How is that ok if this case isn't?

Pachacuti · 19/09/2013 23:06

It's probably not, timidviper, unless they've set themselves up as private members' clubs (which technically have a slightly different legal status IIRC). If you fancy being a test case, go ahead and try to book in.

AlannaPartridge · 19/09/2013 23:11

Are you absolutely certain you wouldn't be "allowed" to stay, Timid?

timidviper · 19/09/2013 23:18

Apparently not. I will have a look at some of their websites but I do know of one hotel who suggest that females might be more comfortable at other hotels they will then recommend.

How about this

I have to say I don't fancy the test case bit though! The gay couple in this case are just as obnoxious as the owners in my book. I'm very much of the live and let live persuasion, anything for a quiet life for me!

Blu · 19/09/2013 23:23

Flapjacks, I do so agree with you.
If only you had been around to advise Rosa Parks. Because she could have simply gone to the back of the bus with dignity, too. Just left the seats at the front for the white people with complete dignity. And prevented all that dreadful fuss, undignified marching in the streets, etc. Awful.

YellowTulips · 19/09/2013 23:24

Flabbergasted by some comments.

Put simply - it's ok to be a bigot as long as you put it on your website...

Sorry but this is not too far removed from the signs in shops in 30's Germany saying "no Jews" or in 50's/60's Southern US "no N" .

Stating your beliefs in a sign or website doesn't give you a free pass to breaking the law.

So no fucking sympathy whatsoever Angry

AlannaPartridge · 19/09/2013 23:24

Suggesting you'd be happier elsewhere is not banning you from staying with them. A fine line, maybe but not illegal. Refusing you service full stop on the basis of your sex/sexuality would be illegal. Just like it was with these Christian B&B owners.

So, in response to your post, not it is not OK for gay hotels to discriminate.

FunnyRunner · 19/09/2013 23:30

Looking at the Chaps website it says:

Chaps hotel is the largest and one of the best hotels for men only

So actually it does seem to be setting itself on dangerous ground tbh - or are you allowed to discriminate on the basis of gender? If the Daily Fail gets wind of it there will be scores of angry heterosexual Christians trying to book in for the weekend Confused

FunnyRunner · 19/09/2013 23:32

Oh and YANBU OP - although I do feel slightly sorry for the owners because they whipped the horse towards their own doom so to speak. And if Friday's post is correct they had a bit of help with the whipping thanks to some bad legal advice. They should have accepted the original judgement.

AlannaPartridge · 19/09/2013 23:34

Link from the Telegraph addressing exactly this

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8335716/Gay-hotels-investigated-for-breaching-equality-laws.html

So it would be discriminatory, but no one has tested it by complaining yet.

AlannaPartridge · 19/09/2013 23:37

It is concerning, reading that article, that some gay B&B owners on the one hand welcome the Equality laws, while at the same time are distressed that this also means they have to welcome heterosexuals into their businesses.

FFS - it's called Equality for a reason!

Not impressed by that attitude at all.

timidviper · 19/09/2013 23:47

I'm glad it's not just me that feels a bit bothered by it tbh. I'm not at all confrontational and I don't mind the approach of "I feel sure you would not enjoy staying here and am happy to recommend somewhere else if you agree to that". While I am quite happy to live and let live I don't want a situation where some are more equal than others if you know what I mean so there should be no discrimination on either side.

Blu · 19/09/2013 23:53

Of course the law must be fair and equal,

Per

Blu · 19/09/2013 23:54

Aargh, phone! Never mind.