Heterophobic?

Gay Australian pub wins right to ban straights
Mon May 28, 2007 2:09AM EDT


MELBOURNE (Reuters) - An Australian hotel catering for homosexuals has won the right to ban heterosexuals from its bars so as to provide a safe and comfortable venue for gay men.

In what is believed to be a first for Australia, the Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled last week that the Peel Hotel in the southern city of Melbourne could exclude patrons based on their sexuality.

Australia's equal opportunity laws prevent people being discriminated against based on race, religion or sexuality.

But Peel Hotel owner Tom McFeely said the ruling was necessary to provide gay men with a non-threatening atmosphere to freely express their sexuality.

"If I can limit the number of heterosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance," Peel told Australian radio on Monday.

McFeely said that, while the hotel welcomed everyone, its gay clientele had expressed discomfort over the number of heterosexuals and lesbians coming to the venue in the past year.

He said there were more than 2,000 venues in Melbourne that catered to heterosexuals, but his hotel was the only one marketing itself predominantly to gay men.

Victoria's state human rights commission backed the ruling, saying it was in line with equal opportunity guidelines defending the rights of groups subject to discrimination.

Commission chief Helen Szoke said the hotel's gay clientele had experienced harassment and violence. "(They) also have felt as though they've been like a zoo exhibit with big groups of women on hens' parties coming to the club," Szoke told reporters.

McFeely told the radio that the hotel had received homophobic telephone calls since news of the ruling was made public.
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Can you just imagine the uproar there'd be if there was a pub that banned homosexuals? I can understand of course that many homosexuals still face prejudice, but you can't expect to get fair treatment doing things like this surely?
Also, how would this be implemented? I wasn't aware that any form of ID listed 'Sexual preference'.

That's quite frankly outrageous. I agree, the uproar if it was the other way around would be incredible.

This makes me crazy. If it's a gay bar - why ban lesbians? Are female homosexuals threatening to male homosexuals?

Can't people just ****ing get along? (Don't answer that - unfortunately it's a rhetorical question)


Kathleen

I totally second this.

Its' something that really pisses me off. I have lots of gay friends, particularly from work, and some who are really camp with it but I've never felt that I wanted to be elsewhere. I'd be really offended if any of them were refused entry to a bar or hotel because of their sexuality, and know they would be if it happened to me.


What annoys me most though, is I know plenty of people who will attack my friends for liking men, or being camp, but then go meet up with their friends who include drug dealers, thieves, thugs and lord knows what else!

a guy who also owned a hotel did this in the north of scotland not too long ago.

the general line of argument was: it's his hotel he should be able to say who can and can't stay there if he wants.

the people saying it was outrageous as far as the news was concerned were few and far between.

while we're at it. you can take this with a massive pinch of salt as i have but a guy on a politics forum i post replied to a similar thread saying he'd worked in there a few years ago and hetro guys would come in solely with the intent to harass the gay clientelle and that he himself had been attacked by a group of hetro males in the club one night.

could be total bullshit but you never know if there's more to the story than that cos i can gaurantee you the papers cant be trusted to write on an emotive issue like this with any degree of impartiality.

Even so, why ban lesbians then? I sincerely doubt they'd attack gay men.

And damn those teletubbies for promoting a homosexual lifestyle: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6698753.stm

you've obviously never seen my birds lesbian flatmate. i'm not exactly shy of the odd fisticuffs but she'd kick my ass

I agree that it's offensive in that The Usual Suspects would throw a hissyfit if the orientations were reversed, and that they're not doing that now.

That said...if I own a piece of property, nobody should be able to tell me what do to with it. It's mine, nobody else's, I'm the only one who has jurisdiction over it.

Adrian

Well, duh. I wasn't saying females (gay or not) can't kick some serious ass, but more that I highly doubt they'll enter a gay bar in order to kick the hell out of gay men.