The Bitch, the Law, and the Bad News!

After last week's marathon article, this week I shall keep it short - but it may not be all that sweet.

As perhaps most of us expected, the House of Lords Peers voted against the amendment to throw out the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations demanded by some religious activists. It was by a majority of 46 (168 votes to 122) - healthy enough, but I would have preferred to have seen more. The Act will now become law and take effect in April. But how much good news is it?

A legal right and an acceptance are two separate things, and they can be worlds apart. Whilst so much of what Equality and Equal Rights stands for is only fair, and therefore must undoubtedly be correct, there remain areas where for some people equality given the full force of the law can make life "awkward" and become an "embarrassment" - and that is putting it mildly!

Differing venues, each catering for a differing part of our society, and all of them and their customers accepting that other types exist and need to be respected has worked quite well, and for a long time everybody has been happy. But what now if the law gives everyone "the same equal right" to use ANY venue or hotel - and without discrimination? What happens to (say) a risqué gay venue or gay hotel set up to cater exclusively for like-minded males? If the law grants equal access to everyone including non-gays and females and states that no person must face discrimination, does this, for the original clientele, mean the end of a way of life? The law is unclear on this, and as it has not yet come into force it is obviously untested. Some fear that a ban on "gay men only" or "lesbians only" advertising and enforcement might easily put them out of business.

Whereas over the years many gay establishments, especially clubs, have lost favour and failed after allowing too much of a straight element access, to the best of my knowledge the opposite has never happened. Most gay people are fearful of acting naturally in the straight clubs, so it is never likely to happen. Losing out under this law will be a very one-sided affair, and at times it may not be without some danger.

It is a well known fact that lesbian action comes into many a straight man's sexual fantasies. So I have to wonder: how long will it be before some hot-bloodied guys for "a joke" manage to book into a lesbian hotel using a little deception? Arriving there they might easily be sober and well behaved. Butter wouldn't melt . . . But later, after a night on the town? And yet to refuse such people access may be to become a criminal, should the law become involved. Unless there are some plain and obvious exclusions to this law granted, I would hate to be a lesbian owning, or even staying in, a hotel known to have previously catered solely for women!

This situation has not passed unnoticed by the media whose reporters and television camera crews have already descended on some of our gay hoteliers here in Blackpool. I haven't seen or heard of anything sensationalistic being reported so far, but it is still early days. In time I expect to.

These serious concerns have been dismissed by the gay rights group Stonewall, which believes that equality is far more important than any right to be exclusive. A spokeswoman for them has said: "What gay people gain through having an equality law is much more than whether we can just run gay hotels." And even Gay Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, of Outrage, has been totally unsympathetic by merely saying: "I think it's very unlikely there are going to be hundreds of heterosexuals banging on the doors of gay hotels demanding to be let in."

God forbid there should be hundreds! A couple would be two too many. It would be enough to likely instil a very unhappy feeling, and that is definitely not good for trade - in either sense of the word! However I don't believe that, for by far the majority of straight people, demanding to be admitted into the "wrong" type of pub, club, or hotel is going to be too much of a problem. When it happens it will be annoying, and it may have its repercussions, but I don't think it will become commonplace. What may be more problematic are the religious fanatics - they can be extremely evil people - and we should never underestimate their capabilities or the levels to which some of them will stoop. Whilst deeply religious people are very much the minority these days, that never stops them from being the tail that tries to wag the dog.

Stonewall, Outrage, and our Mr Tatchell have obviously not met two people we have living not far from our gay scene here in Blackpool. Since not being allowed to place religious literature next to some gay sexual advice literature they have already put one council and a police force through the mincer, been awarded a substantial sum of money, and have been decreed by the court to not be homophobic. These now officially non-homophobic people, in a totally separate issue, have spent two years tracing the leader of the Navajo nation in an attempt to have the Navajo name taken away from a local gay umbrella group using it, and to prevent their council displaying an award gained from that gay group. Of course these two aren't evil people or even homophobic - the court has said so, and who am I to disagree? - but they are religious, they are local to us, and they are deeply committed to whatever it is they do. I guess every town and city will have similar people, so perhaps we need to wary of them. Love thy neighbour? In this case, I don't think so!

We have won the battle over rights, but having those rights does not mean having respect, love, or even an acceptance by some people - especially the religious fanatics; those who will continue in their fight against us. There is still a battle to be fought and won - and that is the battle to be accepted by everyone. It is unfortunate that by gaining this new law on equality we may at the very same time have given our opponents a tool, a weapon, which they can use to severely hurt us. For all to see, unless we obtain some necessary exclusions to this law, many gay lifestyles may now have an Achilles' heel.

See you next week . . .

"The Bitch!" 23/03/07.

About the Author

"The Bitch!", a weekly UK News Review column, is hosted by the author and columnist Michael Knell. These articles appear on the Blackpool Gay Directory website, but are not always specifically gay in content. More information on the author: http://www.michaelknell.com and on the directory: http://www.astabgay.com.