Hotel Owners Sued for Refusing Gay Couple a Room
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Owners Sued for Refusing Gay Couple Room
CBNNews.com
March 23, 2009CBNNews.com - The Christian owners of a British seaside hotel are being sued after refusing to let a gay couple to stay in a double room.
The London Daily Mail reports the owners are facing an unprecedented court case under controversial new equality laws.
The couple has filed a claim of over $7,000 in damages under the allegations of "direct discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation."
But the owners have maintained their policy of banning all unmarried couples from sharing a bed at the hotel, regardless of sexual orientation.
Their policy has been in operation since they bought the hotel in 1986.
Here's the problem, under UK law, civil unions count as marriage in situations like this. So the hotel broke the law, as the couple was/is in a civil union. As with marriage, you are not required to prove your relationship by carrying around the license.
It's not "unprecedented" since it's the 3rd such case since civil unions became legal in the UK. The 2 previous times, the hotel and B&B lost their cases.
There's another law {can't remember it's name right now} that prevents discrimination against gays in cases like this. It came about because a B&B owner had a sign out that said "no fags allowed".
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I'm shocked, simply because being gay now is more widely accepted. I've never heard of a hotel discriminating against gays. I wonder if the same hotel would be that way with blacks.
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One would imagine hotels would WANT people to come to them.
