Well now this is all just so much bullshit one doesn't know where to begin.
The facts M'lud: An elderly couple, Hazelmary Bull and husband Peter, run a Bed and Breakfast establishment. The Bulls take the Bible literally and consequently do not allow whoospies to share the same bed because God thinks it's nasty.
So, in September 2008 when Martin Hall arrived for a dirty weekend with his civil partner Steve Preddy (if only Martin had been called Adam) they were refused access to a room with a double bed and thus the most pointless, counter-productive and petty legal proceedings were set in motion since McDonalds tried to copyright the name "McDonald" in Scotland.
The Bulls claim this is their home and they should be allowed to deny anyone access to it for any reason they see fit. Quite right too. Only on this occasion it's not their home. It's a business. It's a guesthouse, not their home. They just happen to live there too and the laws of the land supersede any bigoted obligations to ones faith.
If you can't accept that the discrimination and prejudices required by your religion are incompatible with the laws governing your business, then I'm afraid you need to find an alternative source of income.
For the gay couple involved..they really need to ask themselves some searching questions about themselves and what they're doing with their lives. And perhaps whether bankrupting an elderly couple simply because they share the same Christian beliefs as millions of other people in England including the Prime Minister, is really going to help the gay-rights movement or improve their lives in anyway.
I mean really homosexual community who think this is a moral victory; I could understand your frustrations if they'd have booked into a Premier Inn or Travel Lodge only to be told that whoopsies can't share a room, but this was a guesthouse run by people who are pushing seventy.
They're from of a generation that simply holds a different set of values from contemporary society. They're probably still cautious around Germans. Of all the people and organisations in this country who are openly discriminatory who can seriously undermine the rights of minority groups, why choose a harmless old couple who'd rather not let homosexuals hump away at each other in the spare room?
Let's be clear about this. Mr and Mr Preddy-Hall chose to book themselves into this guesthouse specifically because they had heard the couple were Christians and had in place this prohibition on homosexuals sharing a double bed and simply wanted to make a fuss, which they have now succeeded.
But have they ended discrimination towards homosexuals now? Will Christians across the country now accept that their antiquated beliefs should be jettisoned because the EU thinks they ought to join the 21st century? Or will they simply be infuriated by the pettiness of these men, dig their heels in and take their frustrations out on any other gay couples they might come into contact with in the future?
Discrimination and prejudices are very ugly and of course we all want to see them disappear from society, but this is not the way. The problem with crusaders like Steve Preddy and the disabled keyboard warrior Jody McIntyre is their actions have nothing to do with eliminating discrimination and everything to do with just getting noticed in the hope that it will allow them to deal with their own insecurities about themselves. But do they feel more secure now they've had their day in court or in retrospect do they feel they'd have been better served just booking into a Travel Lodge and accepting that are more dignified and productive ways to go about highlighting prejudice?
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