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18/01/2011
Gay Couple Win B&B Case
A judge has ruled that the owners of a hotel who refused a gay couple a double room acted unlawfully.
As Christians, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who run Chymorvah Hotel, close to Penzance, said they did not believe unmarried couples should share a room.
Bristol couple, Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy, said the September 2008 incident was "direct discrimination".
Bristol County Court awarded them £1,800 in damages.
In a statement the couple said: "When we booked the hotel we just wanted a relaxing weekend away, something that thousands of other couples do every weekend.
"Because we wanted to bring our new dog we checked he would be welcome. It didn't even cross our minds that in 2008 in Britain we needed to ask if we would be."
Ruling, Judge Rutherford said: "It is a very clear example of how social attitudes have changed over the years for it is not so very long ago that these beliefs of the defendants would have been those accepted as normal by society at large.
"Now it is the other way around."
John Wadham, from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: "This decision means that community standards, not private ones, must be upheld.
"The right of an individual to practise their religion and live out their beliefs is one of the most fundamental rights a person can have, but so is the right not to be turned away by a hotel just because you are gay."
(BMcN/GK)
As Christians, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who run Chymorvah Hotel, close to Penzance, said they did not believe unmarried couples should share a room.
Bristol couple, Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy, said the September 2008 incident was "direct discrimination".
Bristol County Court awarded them £1,800 in damages.
In a statement the couple said: "When we booked the hotel we just wanted a relaxing weekend away, something that thousands of other couples do every weekend.
"Because we wanted to bring our new dog we checked he would be welcome. It didn't even cross our minds that in 2008 in Britain we needed to ask if we would be."
Ruling, Judge Rutherford said: "It is a very clear example of how social attitudes have changed over the years for it is not so very long ago that these beliefs of the defendants would have been those accepted as normal by society at large.
"Now it is the other way around."
John Wadham, from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: "This decision means that community standards, not private ones, must be upheld.
"The right of an individual to practise their religion and live out their beliefs is one of the most fundamental rights a person can have, but so is the right not to be turned away by a hotel just because you are gay."
(BMcN/GK)
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