UK Court Finds Bread & Breakfast Owners Discriminated Against Gay Couple

By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PENZANCE, England – A Bristol County Court has ruled against two bed and breakfast owners for refusing to allow a gay couple to share a bed, holding that such a refusal constituted discrimination.  The Court awarded the couple 1,800 pounds (about $2,900) each in damages, reported Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, which supported the gay couple’s claims.

Peter and Hazel Bull, the couple who own and run the bed and breakfast in Cornwall, England, insisted that they had a long-standing policy refusing to allow all unmarried couples to share a room due to their strict Christian beliefs.

Mrs. Bull offered support for their 24-year-old policy by stating that even her brother and his female partner were not allowed to share a room in the bed and breakfast due to her strict religious beliefs.

The Christian Legal Centre, legal counsel to the Bulls, said that “the Bulls made it clear that they did not hold any hostility towards homosexuals and applied their policy of ‘only giving double rooms to married couples’ regardless of sexual orientation.

But Judge Andre Rutherford ruled against the Bulls, holding that they discriminated against Martyn Hall and Steve Preddy on the ground of sexual orientation and in violation of British equality law.

After the judgment, the Bulls stated they are considering an appeal.  “We are obviously disappointed with the result,” they said.  “Our double-bed policy was based on our sincere beliefs about marriage, not hostility to anybody,” they added.

Judge Rutherford also made a point to announce that he believed the Bulls.  “I am quite satisfied as to the genuineness of [their] beliefs and it is, I have no doubt, one which others also hold,” he said.  The Judge, however, refused to accept the defense because the Bulls’ views are not “those accepted as normal by society at large.”

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, a British gay-rights group, supported the ruling.  “You can’t turn away people from a hotel because they’re black or Jewish and in 2011 you shouldn’t be able to demean them by turning them away because they’re gay either,” he said.

For more information please see:

CNN – Christian B&B Owners Discriminated Against Gays, UK Court Finds – January 18, 2011

THE FREETHINKER – Judge Rules Against Christian Fundie B&B Owners Who Turned Away a Gay Couple – January 18, 2011

SKY NEWS – Gay Couple Win B&B Discrimination Case – January 18, 2011

Author: Impunity Watch Archive