Gay B&B remark sparks row
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A key Conservative has been recorded suggesting people who run bed and breakfasts in their homes should have the right to reject homosexual guests. But shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said hotels should not be allowed to discriminate in that way.
Labour and the Lib Dems said the Tories would allow discrimination "to thrive".
Mr Grayling later said he was looking at being "sensitive to the genuinely held principles of faith groups" but was not seeking a change in the law.
The secret recording has been published on the Observer newspaper's website. The BBC's political correspondent Norman Smith said Mr Grayling's stance "put him at odds with the law".
Mr Grayling made his comments after a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies in London on Wednesday. He was at the think tank to talk on the subject of "A Conservative Home Office."
During the recording, Mr Grayling is heard responding to a question from the audience about civil liberties. He said: "I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences.
"I personally always took the view that… if you look at the case of 'Should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from their hotel?'
"I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home.
"If they are running a hotel on the High Street, I really don't think that it is right in this day and age that a gay couple should walk into a hotel and be turned away because they are a gay couple, and I think that is where the dividing line comes."
Under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 no-one should be refused goods or services on the grounds of their sexuality. However in March, Cambridgeshire gay couple Michael Black and John Morgan were turned away from a guest house in Berkshire because the owner said it was against her policy to accommodate same-sex couples.
The BBC's Norman Smith said Mr Grayling was not aware he was being recorded, thought he was among friends and was "ruminating". He said it was "awkward and embarrassing" for the shadow home secretary, who would have to enforce equality legislation should the Conservatives win the election.
In a statement, Mr Grayling said: "Any suggestion that I am against gay rights is wholly wrong - it is a matter of record that I voted for civil partnerships.
"I also voted in favour of the legislation that prohibited bed and breakfast owners from discriminating against gay people.
"However, this is a difficult area and on Wednesday I made comments which reflected my view that we must be sensitive to the genuinely held principles of faith groups in this country. "But the law is now clear on this issue, I am happy with it and would not wish to see it changed."
Conservative leader David Cameron has apologised for Section 28 - the controversial law brought in by his party in 1988 banning local authorities from portraying homosexuality in a positive light. And in February, openly gay Tory frontbencher Nick Herbert said there had been a "self-evident" change in his party's attitude to gay people.
But the culture secretary Ben Bradshaw, who is openly gay, told the BBC: "Not only is this displaying the fact that the Conservatives have not really changed on this and many other issues but here you have the shadow home secretary advocating that people break the law."
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "Chris Grayling's plan would allow discrimination to thrive, as every bigot was given a licence to opt out of equality rules.
"These views show how far the Conservative Party still has to travel before reaching the modern age."
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall, told the Observer the comments would be "very alarming to a lot of gay people who may have been thinking of voting Conservative".
"I don't think anyone, including the Tories, wants to go back to the days where there is a sign outside saying: 'No gays, no blacks, no Irish'," he said
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David Cameron has an extremely poor voting record on gay issues, so why should we think he and his party have changed?
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I do not know David Cameron and his voting record at all,however, here in the States the politicians that are the biggest homophobes have a way of becoming the biggest Homos. Here in the South of the USA we have a saying: "The bit dog yelps the loudest." Meaning the bitten dog probably started the fight. And in this case is trying to hide something from the world. He is so in denial of his true self that he is forcing others into his :closet:
How many Gay Men would want to stay at any B & B with Homophobic owners in the first place. I for one would rather know this information and choose to stay elsewhere than be subjected to forced acceptance of my lifestyle. After all, it is their home first. I do think the licensees to run these B & B's should be pulled for this prejudicial treatment of anyone for any reason.
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David Cameron is the leader of the Tories {think Republicans in the US}.
The last couple of years, they have tried to claim to be gay friendly, but then one of their front benchers opens their mouth and says something pretty hateful.
But let's not be fooled, the Labour Party {think Democrats} have put in laws that give preference to religion over equality to gays.
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:thankyou: For the explanation!!! `I get it ~ Politics is the same no matter which country or how progressive they claim to be:
A bunch a self serving @*&^%$
