What do we think about Chris Grayling suggesting B&Bs should be able to bar gay guests?

[said]

Grayling suggests B&Bs should be able to bar gay guests Story here

Considering he may be the future Home Secretary...

Lolololol

1st time you've ever made me laugh LG

This just all makes me completely depressed and at the same time determined to make sure my children don't grow up with a similar kind of depression. Not sure how to do that but I bloody hope the world moves on in the next 10 years so that my sons won't know what a sad place it was for their Mums to live in at times (lots of memories of B&Bs treating me and dp badly when we used to go on trips away in our 20's).

I'm intrigued by the thought that this statement will gain the Tories votes. I immediately thought the opposite.

Surely it's more likely that people who agree with Chris Grayling will already be planning to vote Tory? People who disagree with the comment are either likely to be planning to vote Labour already, or are unsure whether to vote Tory or Labour and are therefore likely to veer towards Labour as a result of the comment.

That's my non-expert political analysis anyway.

Not read the full thread but I disagree completely with the idea that christians should be able to ban gays ... but then I am 100% athiest and very, very anti religious.

DH says "what about the rights of the christians?"

Grayling is a fool.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of Tory. There is the David Cameron/Ken Clarke type, who believe in free markets but with social liberalism mediated only by gentle state paternalism - and then there are the authoritarian types - like Anne Widdecomble/Michael Howard.

Thankfully the Cameron types are dominant - or at least, will be in the new Parliament, given the huge numbers of old MPs retiring at the election - but Grayling falls squarely into the second camp.

The stupid thing is that Grayling voted for the law which makes discrimination illegal, and he has no plans to overturn it.

Cameron himself is evidently very pro-equality - apologising for section 28, and extending all state acknowledgements of marriage to civil partnerships too.

However, I am not convinced that Grayling's remarks will be such an electoral liability.
It's just that those (rightly) outraged are the most vocal.

Elections are about turnout as well as broadening the base of voters. The elderly (who have the highest turnout rate) are most likely to share Grayling's views.

He is a bigoted idiot.

Hmm. I'm bisexual by identity as I was born that way, a Christian, and I'm disabled. And I even have a foreign-sounding surname! And I'm a business owner.

I had a choice when I set up a business: I could have run it from my home, or from offices. Either way, if I refused to do business with someone because they were [insert characteristic of your choice here from list of gay/black/disabled/other protected characteristic]
then that would be illegal. True whether that was in my home or in an office. No different at all. I have a choice. But I also have to obey the law.

B&B owners get to choose if they run a B&B. If they don't want to live with the people they rent rooms to, why not run a hotel instead and get in a manager. Or run a holiday cottage business.

As for finding out where to stay or not stay, am I guessing that a few people here would like us coralled into a few openly "gay friendly" locations where people can wait outside to throw stones, and keep away from all those decent normal folk that we might upset by loving each other just like other people do?

Forget it. No way do I want to be shoehorned into a 'gays only belong here' place thanks.

we tend to only stay at larger hotels now - impersonal and therefore anonymous seems to be the way to go.

Also having children seems to be a perfect disguise...

DP & I are a lesbian, interracial couple with one DD & we avoid B&Bs etc exactly because of the risk of this kind of thing happening. Hotel chains are safely anonymous. We don't get to go on family holidays often & so when we do, the last thing we want is to risk it being ruined by disapproving stares over breakfast.

This is a tough one for me tbh. I'm a raving liberal, best friends are gay etc etc.

But I also think that shops and businesses are private property, and that nobody has an intrinsic right to be allowed on that property. Does anybody see what I mean?

I used to work in a shop, and it amazed me how many people felt that had a right to be in the shop, and didn't have to leave if asked because it was a public place. It isn't a public place though is it.

I'm not comparing gay people to annoying and aggressive shoplifters (ie who we had to chuck out) but I dunno. There's more to this one than gay rights. I've been sneered at, had service all but denied me in the past, perhaps because of my appearance or whatever. My view in that instance is 'well f* you, I'll take my money elsewhere' rather than trying to force somebody to serve me with grace.

I hate B&Bs and indeed small hotels. I hate the loss of privacy and sense of being watched or monitored. I just wouldn't want to stay in one if I could avoid it. It puts you, your relationship and your movements out on show. I suppose in the future the time will come when nobody of any age, political persuasion etc will not notice or care that there is a same sex couple in the next room or whatever. But we aren't there yet are we, realistically.

heard a woman who has run B&Bs and hotels for 40 years last night on a talk show phone-in. She said that most B&Ba are private residences so you can choose who you allow in, but a hotel is a commercial residence and is therefore subject to anti-discrimination laws

The British Social Attitudes Survey is interesting

www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/26/british-social-attitudes-drugs-gay-rights-marriage-data

The total "same sex relationships are always/mostly/sometimes wrong" figure was 76% in 1989. "Rarely/not wrong" was 18%.

Compare that to 2007. "Always/mostly/sometimes wrong" was 43%. "Rarely/not wrong" was 49%.

There has been a big shift, and indeed reversal in attitudes - but 43% is a big number and not much smaller than 49%.

In electoral terms, it is even bigger, because as I explained earlier, that 43% will disproportionately contain the demographic most likely to turn out and vote.

Granted, there will have been further shifts between 2007 and 2010 - but not by a huge amount, I think.

We run a B&B. It is our home, regardless of whther the B&B makes it not. However anyone and everyone is welcome, we have had gay couples stay, women no men. I have no problame as long as they are friendly polite and not rude to me, my DH or my children. My sister also had a lesbian couple staying and as soon as the other couple (man and wife) found out they were gay all hell let loose. They refused to eat at the same time, and refused to drink the same milk from the fridge, my sister felt she was stuck in the middle as they were both complainign to her but would have been prepared to kick the hetero couple out as they were just so awful.

Running a B&B allows us to be able to afford to live in a beautiful part of the country and spend time with our DC's, we are only accountable to ourselves and cna shut/open whenver we want to.

FiveGoMadInDorset, the woman on the radio show said it all comes down to the deeds of the property. If it is a private residence then it is not open to all members of the public, the owner can choose who they let in.

well we choose to have everyone, none of the couples said they were gay when they booked which is fine, we choose not to have some people back but those are the ones who we find rude to us, other guests etc.

I didn't know that about the deeds, we are tenants for life in an old family home. I don't actually think any deeds exist

'My sister also had a lesbian couple staying and as soon as the other couple (man and wife) found out they were gay all hell let loose. They refused to eat at the same time, and refused to drink the same milk from the fridge, my sister felt she was stuck in the middle as they were both complainign to her but would have been prepared to kick the hetero couple out as they were just so awful.'

god that makes me so depressed. What an awful country this still is....

There are also alot of B&B's down here who don't accept children or only over a certain age.

A devil's advocate question on equality: should Sheila's Wheels be illegal?

I think they insure men too.....or is it just the name you don't like..?

daftpunk

OK, I thought they were women only, never mind.

No problem, but I'm with you... Sheilas Wheels should be illegal....the adverts are so annoying they're off the scale

I can list several groups of people I wouldn't allow in my home, the bank have the deeds so I guess it's their call? What bollocks.
Bigoted idiots are at the top of the list.

G40; You decided to stay then...lol

Haven't read this whole thread, but has anyone listened to the "secret recording", which by the way was made at a public speaking engagement so not exactly a secret?
If you listen to it Chris Grayling is making the point that people should be able to do what they want in their own homes. More than anything I believe he stupidly mis-spoke rather than that he is a rampant homophobe.
If you look at his voting record in Parliament he has a 100% record for voting pro gay rights. Not the actions of someone who is homophobic.

To turn around and say "same old Tories" is ridiculous! At no stage did he say "this will be Tory policy" and since when did the thoughts of one man speak for a whole party?

More desperate Labour spin if you ask me. It will backfire just like thx Gene Hunt/David Cameron poster.