Gay pub wins right to ban straights


MELBOURNE (Reuters) - An Australian hotel catering for homosexuals has won the right to ban heterosexuals from its bars so as to provide a safe and comfortable venue for gay men.

In what is believed to be a first for Australia, the Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled last week that the Peel Hotel in the southern city of Melbourne could exclude patrons based on their sexuality.

Australia's equal opportunity laws prevent people being discriminated against based on race, religion or sexuality.

But Peel Hotel owner Tom McFeely said the ruling was necessary to provide gay men with a non-threatening atmosphere to freely express their sexuality.

"If I can limit the number of heterosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance," Peel told Australian radio on Monday.

McFeely said that, while the hotel welcomed everyone, its gay clientele had expressed discomfort over the number of heterosexuals and lesbians coming to the venue in the past year.

He said there were more than 2,000 venues in Melbourne that catered to heterosexuals, but his hotel was the only one marketing itself predominantly to gay men.

Victoria's state human rights commission backed the ruling, saying it was in line with equal opportunity guidelines defending the rights of groups subject to discrimination.

Commission chief Helen Szoke said the hotel's gay clientele had experienced harassment and violence. "(They) also have felt as though they've been like a zoo exhibit with big groups of women on hens' parties coming to the club," Szoke told reporters.

McFeely told the radio that the hotel had received homophobic telephone calls since news of the ruling was made public.

get used to it in this country if your not a asian dwarf lezbian single mother etc............. then you are f@rked
greg

Its fine by me. What straight bloke would go in there in the first place? I think its funny that they don't want gay women in there either. Dissension in the ranks?

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced

Bakes, Is your signature line in any way related to the "green" statement that I see on all the emails that I receive from Air New Zealand about "Please think green before printing out this email"?

May be all the hunters in Oz should march in the next Mardi gras and demand equal rights with the greenies.Sheeeeeet what next

Well good, now all of the "Band of .45-70'ers" have a place to go drink in peace.

Reading between the lines, I think it's a plot to keep the woman, of all persuasions, out. The odd (no pun intended) straight fella that got in might always change his um, mind.

Will they have a password, a secret wink, or what?

Frank,
Nope I just saw it on an email at work and it gave me a chuckle.

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Will they have a password, a secret wink, or what?

I think it is a brown eye wink.


(Where is the vomit graphic when you need one )

On the same kind of note, we wtched that award winning DVD, "Brokeback Mountain" and I was physically revolted by it.

At least that pub by being open about its preferred clientele allows us to not accidentally enter it.

I have no problem with it for that reason. No real issue with them if they keep to thyemselves but dont really want to go into a mainly gay pub.

The only correct thing to do now is open a club with a strict 'no fags' policy. Now that they have set a precedent for discrimination, they should have no problem with it. After all, straight men need a safe venue for expressing themselves without having to be whispered about and ogled by the homos...

Hmmmm.... a guy by the name of "Mcfeely" runs the gay bar??? seems apropriate, somehow... gotta love it... Les

Pity Slim Dusty is dead.

The sequel to his now famous ballard could be "The Pub with no Queer"; come to think of it give it to Kevin Bloody Wilson to write!

Another little coincedence is the name of the venue, 'Peel'. In Afrikaans it means penis, can't get much better then that.