Here's a little story of good old religious morality, the owner of a B&B in my own home county of Berkshire (Cookham) refused a gay couple when they turned up to occupy a room that they had booked. The person in question (Susanne Wilkinson) claimed that it was against her "beliefs" that two men should share a bed, and she didn't see why she should change her beliefs in order to honour a contract she had made with her guests.
Hypocritically the first line of the WEB site of this establishment reads...
"A warm & friendly welcome awaits all guests at Susanne Wilkinson's Swiss Bed & Breakfast in the idyllic village of Cookham, near Maidenhead in Berkshire."
I suppose this is what happens when people live in a society that reinforces the idea that their random superstitions are deserving of respect from everyone else. If the charge is proven to be true then not only is Ms Wilkinson wrong in her beliefs (which no one is asking her to change BTW) she is acting against the law of the land by discriminating against these people.
Let's hope she doesn't get a Christian judge like Cherie Blair, otherwise no doubt she'll just get a (metaphorical) slap on the wrist and told to smile and pray harder next time she feels like discriminating against people because of their biology.
2 comments:
As usual, a few militant "we speak for all gay people!" activists are making a mountain out of nothing, and giving the rest of us a bad name. This B&B is run by deeply religious people (whether you think they are narrow minded bigots or not, it's their views and their house). So what if we can't stay there? For goodness sakes..... There are thousands of other B&Bs in this country which will take our pink pounds!
Anon, I heard this first hand from one of the people who were refused accommodation, they were interviewed on the news. I agree that it's a "small" story but all these discriminatory stories are small when looked at individually; the issue is in a public setting like a hotel or guest house where do you draw the line? gay, straight, blacks, Asians, Catholics, Chelsea supporters?
I'd hate to have a situation where people were able to freely ignore certain parts of our law whenever they felt like it based on their own subjective opinions. If these people have these (strong) views then tough luck, they shouldn't be running a guest house, no one is asking them to change their views simply obey the law like everyone else.
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