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Fri 2 Jul, 2004 08:34 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Guest-house owner Tom Forrest in the wild Scottish highlands was adamant when two London homosexuals wanted to book a room with a double bed -- not in my house you don't.
They could have twin beds, but not a double."We will not condone your sexual perversion," he told them in an e-mail.
The case has become a cause celebre, highlighting the limits of public acceptance of homosexuality and prompting demands from gay lobbyists for a change in the law.
Forrest, owner of the Cromasaig guest house in Kinlochewe, some 50 miles west of Inverness, was not answering the phone on Thursday but has pledged not to back down.
"We do not have a problem with you being poofs and your personal sexual deviation, that is up to you,"he said to the two men in the e-mail. "You are welcome to our twin room if you wish, but we will not condone your perversion.
"I just do not approve of unnatural acts being performed in my home."
Gay rights organisation Stonewall said the law should be brought in line with other anti-discrimination legislation.
"It would be illegal to refuse someone a room on the grounds of race, gender or disability," a spokesman said.
"We will be seeking a change in the law because unfortunately it is not illegal to discriminate against lesbians and gays in the provision of goods and services."
Forrest's stern attitude has made headlines in Britain, where the government has unveiled a civil partnership bill that gives legal recognition to same-sex partnerships.
The Scottish tourist board, VisitScotland, said it had asked Forrest to change his mind, but that he had refused. The board has now removed his three-star guest house from its Web site list of recommended accommodation.
"We have decided that we cannot continue to promote or advertise Mr Forrest's business because we cannot condone the offensive way this guest was treated," a spokesman said.
"We would like to make it clear that his views are not shared by a majority of Scottish people."
Thousands of gays and lesbians are expected to march through central London on Saturday in Europe's largest gay pride festival.
haha
i knew you would respond to this one
Well, but from the other side, the guest house mentioned is a private property of Mr. Forrest, and he does not want to make it the place where gays do things he considers being wrong. What can he really do for not to condone the things he does not want to? Or, unlike the gay customers, he is not free to have stances of his own and to defend them?
I want to notice that he did not refuse room renting to these clients, he just refused to provide them with facilities alleviating the wrong (in his opinion) behavior.
well i have to agree with you too..
there are two sides to every arguement
and people are entitled to their own beliefs
steissd wrote:Well, but from the other side, the guest house mentioned is a private property of Mr. Forrest, and he does not want to make it the place where gays do things he considers being wrong. What can he really do for not to condone the things he does not want to? Or, unlike the gay customers, he is not free to have stances of his own and to defend them?
I want to notice that he did not refuse room renting to these clients, he just refused to provide them with facilities alleviating the wrong (in his opinion) behavior.
So, like, if he had told an African-American couple that they could have a room, but he didnt want them to eat any of their "backward nigg*r" food in his house ...
- you know, he wasnt refusing them, just wouldnt condone them doing things he had strong negative feelings about, which he told them about in no uncertain words, using a swear word like he now did with "poofs" -
... would that, like, also be OK to you too?
Regarding poofs: well, he has bad manners. The same request could have been formulated more politely without usage of abusive vocabulary. But his reluctance to provide people whose lifestyle he despises with facilities for indulging in their sin (in his opinion, once more) is quite legitimate.
Let us imagine some country where prostitution is legal (if I am not mistaken, it is legal in Nevada, USA). But this does not mean that any landlord/lady should agree with turning his/her realty into brothel by the tenants. This may be against his/her religious beliefs, for example, and he/she is free to confess any religion and to act in accordance with his/her beliefs (unless this implies terror).
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