Gay Rights
Hotels banned from turning away gays
HOTEL owners who refuse to let gay couples share a room will be prosecuted under a government U-turn on gay rights.
The landmark decision follows repeated complaints of gay people being turned away from bed and breakfasts on the grounds that they would supposedly offend others, or struck off GPs' lists by doctors who disapprove of homosexuality.
Alan Johnson, the Trade and Industry Secretary, is expected to bow to pressure from Labour peers and MPs this week and extend his Equalities Bill now before Parliament to cover discrimination against homosexuals, not just in the workplace but elsewhere in their daily lives.
Although sources close to Johnson insisted he believed the U-turn was 'the right thing to do', the government was otherwise likely to have been defeated over the bill, with Labour peers outraged that gays were to receive a lower level of protection in the law than people discriminated against on the grounds of their religious belief.
The campaign - backed by TV presenter Julian Clary and actor Sir Ian McKellen among others - intensified after the alleged murder of a gay barman in south London last month highlighted the dangers of homophobia.
Chris Smith, the gay former Labour MP, who became a peer after the election, last night welcomed the decision. 'So long as discrimination is still legal, it means I that effectively prejudice is condoned and that leads to violence and to bigotry,' he told The Observer. 'This is extremely good news.
Only last month, two gay men were turned away from a guest-house in Basingstoke, Hampshire. after the owner refused to let them share a room, saying it would upset other guests. Other cases cited by campaigners include lesbians being told they could not have smear tests to check for cervical cancer unless a male doctor was present.
Although discrimination against gays at work is outlawed, under the bill as it currently stands there is no protection against discrimination in the provision of goods and services. That means, for example, that it is perfectly legal for a pub landlord to refuse to serve gays out of simple prejudice. Yet such discrimination would be outlawed if It was on the grounds of religious belief. The gay Labour peer Lard Alli has pointed out that he could not be turned away from a hotel because he was Muslim, but could be rejected because he is gay.
The move may be controversial, particularly as it could mean gay couples winning the same rights as heterosexual couples to fertility treatment on the NHS. But with up to 80 MPs signing a Commons motion backing a level playing field for the victims of homophobia, there is overwhelming sup-port for it within the Labour party.
Sources close to Johnson, who has a long record of sympathy on gay rights, said he was not bowing to political pressure, however:
'Alan has always been clear that this was the right thing to do.'
The difficulty had been in amending an already published bill inherited by Johnson after the election. A new clause, to be tabled by Smith and Alli this week, will get round that by giving the government powers to add the new safeguards via secondary leg-islation and is expected to be accepted by the government.
So far, the only redress gay pressure groups have had is boycott campaigns against companies perceived as hostile to gays. The upmarket honeymoon resort chain Sandals, which had refused to allow gays into its couples-only resorts, was eventually forced to give in when London Mayor Ken Livingstone banned them from advertising on the tube.
by Gaby Hinsliff, Political Editor
The Observer, London, 6 November 2005
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