Restaurants reserve the right not to serve anyone.
Maybe Anne can answer this question, but I think that if someone is renting a house, they can interview prospective tenants and deny them if they want to.
In the case of a B&B, I think owners should have the right to deny a room. It is their property, after all. Think about their point of view. A large part of B&B business is gained through word of mouth. Let's say this gay couple has a stupendous time and tell all their gay friends how fab this place is. Some of them go, they tell their friends. Suddenly this place is a gay B&B, not what the owners had intended at all when they opened their establishment. Probably most of their current clients shares their values, because of word of mouth that way.
A restaurant can deny someone service because they are gay? That is like denying someone service because they are black, or a woman.
I really can't wait until the day when there isnt a "gay B&B" or a "straight B&B." One day it won't matter. I honestly think (or maybe hope) that the next generation is going to look at things like this, and prop 8 in California as ridiculous and barbaric.
Shouldnt the owners just be happy to have the business? Gay/straight whatever? They aren't breaking the law, they aren't causing a scene, they are a couple looking for a place to stay.
Some of my closest friends are gay, and to think that a restaurant would deny them service, or that they couldnt rent a room beside me, breaks my heart.
Restaurants reserve the right not to serve anyone.
Maybe Anne can answer this question, but I think that if someone is renting a house, they can interview prospective tenants and deny them if they want to.
In the case of a B&B, I think owners should have the right to deny a room. It is their property, after all. Think about their point of view. A large part of B&B business is gained through word of mouth. Let's say this gay couple has a stupendous time and tell all their gay friends how fab this place is. Some of them go, they tell their friends. Suddenly this place is a gay B&B, not what the owners had intended at all when they opened their establishment. Probably most of their current clients shares their values, because of word of mouth that way.
A restaurant can deny someone service because they are gay? That is like denying someone service because they are black, or a woman.
I really can't wait until the day when there isnt a "gay B&B" or a "straight B&B." One day it won't matter. I honestly think (or maybe hope) that the next generation is going to look at things like this, and prop 8 in California as ridiculous and barbaric.
Shouldnt the owners just be happy to have the business? Gay/straight whatever? They aren't breaking the law, they aren't causing a scene, they are a couple looking for a place to stay.
Some of my closest friends are gay, and to think that a restaurant would deny them service, or that they couldnt rent a room beside me, breaks my heart.
Please don't take it so personally.
In the UK a restaurant (or any other business) can deny anyone service they don't want to serve, they cannot openly declare that it's because of race, colour, sexual orientation, but it is a basic human right that you can serve whoever you like and not serve anyone you dislike for whatever reason. Now some might say if you are of that mind then why have a restaurant or other business that brings you into contact.
Also on the gay thing, so it's perfectly acceptable for the gay community to have their own cafes/hotels/bars that openly discriminate against hetrosexuals but not the other way around ??
And btw I wholly agree with you it shouldn't matter, we should all get along after all we are all human... but as long as there is exclusivity on both sides it will matter.
Also on the gay thing, so it's perfectly acceptable for the gay community to have their own cafes/hotels/bars that openly discriminate against hetrosexuals but not the other way around ??
Dubz
Maybe this is just my own personal experience, but while there are cafes/hotels/bars that may cater more to a gay client base, ive never seen them discriminate against straight people. After all, a gay bar is a great place to go if you are a straight girl who wants to dance without boys being gross!
I don't know what restaurants use as their basis for determining whom they will and will not serve. I just know I've seen signs up that say, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone," or something along those lines. Maybe it's for people who are snotty to wait staff or who have had too much to drink already.
It just seems to me that a B&B is sort of an extension of your own home and you're inviting strangers in, in exchange for money. I think you should be able to say yes or no. The owners couldn't feel good about their business if they were housing what they consider to be "immoral activity" under their roof.
There are B&B's that have policies against children. Can I sue because a B&B won't let my kids stay? Doubt it. It's just their policy. So, I stay somewhere else that's kid friendly and people aren't there for romance.
As I said before, a regular public hotel...different story.
Also on the gay thing, so it's perfectly acceptable for the gay community to have their own cafes/hotels/bars that openly discriminate against hetrosexuals but not the other way around ??
Dubz
Maybe this is just my own personal experience, but while there are cafes/hotels/bars that may cater more to a gay client base, ive never seen them discriminate against straight people. After all, a gay bar is a great place to go if you are a straight girl who wants to dance without boys being gross!
True, it may just be Dublin, but I know people who been asked to leave certain places, I also know people who have been refused entry as "It's not your type of place" and when they push it the door usually tells them "Look I fucking told you, you're not getting fucking in". From my own personal experience I was made to feel most uncomfortable at an A.A. meeting (I spoke about losing a girlfriend to scoffs and giggles) and was even told directly "that maybe I should try elsewhere" which was a polite way of being told to "fuck off". Nice to hear for a recovering alcoholic. That said there are arseholes in every group within society, however in a room full of 20 gay people 18 of them were fucking arseholes.
But anyway my diatribe aside, I think It should have been made clear to the guests at the time of booking what the hotel/B&B rules were. I would suggest advertising the fact but that could also cause it's own problems as you could end up with a blatantly anti-gay business, before you know it you have certain unsavoury groups arranging meetings and thinking they have an alliegance to the business.
Here's what I know...there are few things on Earth that upset me more than inequality. To deny someone of anything because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc is wrong.
Here's what I know...there are few things on Earth that upset me more than inequality. To deny someone of anything because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc is wrong.
I agree with you 100%
...but what about when one person/group/creed's race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc. conflicts with another person/group/creed's race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc. Which I suppose was the point of this debate.
I completely agree with Kristy.
The "both sides" argument is quite debatable, since we're not talking about two groups that are considered equals. Gay people don't have the same social rights as straight people (in most parts of the world, at least). We're talking about a minority that's discriminated, in this case because of their sexual orientation.
Whereas I have never had any problems in gay environments, I know some places where there's a sense of "exclusivity". This also happened (happens?) with places run by black people. From my point of view, this is just a reaction of minorities to the segregation they suffer from the majorities in the first place.
In Argentina you sometimes hear people complaining about being discriminated for being white, or straight, or wealthy. But as soon as you suggest to exchange their priviledges for the ones that the minorities supposedly have, they change the topic of the conversation.
My point is you can't talk about two sides as if they were equals when they don't socially have the same rights or are treated the same way.
Anyway, I totally share Kristy's opinion. :oP
What if we took the gay part out of it and just used the example of unmarried couples staying there (which the article says were also turned down). It is people doing something that the owners of the establishment consider sexually immoral under their own roof.
If you owned a place and people were doing something you considered immoral (but not necessarily illegal) would you still allow them to stay in your house? That's essentially what a B&B is, you pay to stay at someone's house. The owners are usually the hosts, the maids, the cooks, etc.
It is no one's "right" to stay at a B&B. It is sort of a privilege that is extended to you.
Was this place truly a hotel, or was it a B&B?
I don't want to debate anymore. It makes me feel like I'm arguing with my friends. :o(
Haha, no way. :oP As a matter of fact yesterday they were airing The Terminal and I saw a tiny bit of it. Why do foreign characters in Hollywood movies always speak English in a stupid way? Plus, they must either be: a) drug dealers, b) terrorists, c) any sort of evil people, d) cute idiots. Tom Hanks in this movie fits the last option.
I cannot like him. Sorry. :oP
Turtleneck wrote:
I don't want to debate anymore. It makes me feel like I'm arguing with my friends. :o(
I HATE ALL OF YOU AND WISH NONSTOP NICKELBACK PLAYING IN YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK not really at all. I just thought I would be the one to make the thread hostile.
To answer a ? directed at me from way back, a landlord does have the right to refuse to rent to someone but we have to abide by the Fair Housing Program which says:
The state and federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination because of a person’s race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability (mental or physical), or familial status. For Austin residents, additional protections include marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or status as a student.
I wouldn't refuse anyone on those grounds. To be honest besides credit, criminal, and work history issues (which based on those grounds I have the right to refuse) I would only refuse someone if they were a smoker.
