Australia’s The Peel Hotel celebrated a court victory this weekend after a tribunal ruled that the gay guest house can legally exclude heterosexuals and lesbians.
Hotel owner Tom McFeely applied for the special privilege after women invaded the gay space for “hen’s nights” during which they “ogled” and objectified the gay men for their own amusement, while straight men also got off on scoffing at the gays.
Human rights commission chief Helen Szoke seemed to agree. She wrote in her ruling:
To regard the gay male patrons of the venue as providing an entertainment or spectacle to be stared at, as one would at an animal at a zoo, devalues and dehumanises them.”
[The ruling] seeks to give gay men a space in which they may, without inhibition, meet, socialise and express physical attraction to each other in a non-threatening atmosphere.
While some people may view this exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act as a legal blessing, others see it as a curse.
Aussie homo-journo Steve Dow blasts the decision:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Sometimes we need reminding we haven’t got a monopoly on oppression… Here’s a tip, Peel patrons. Instead of being mean with our dance space, let’s share it. Soon there will be a report by the Human Rights Commission tabled in Federal Parliament that intelligently outlines the urgent need to end discrimination against same-sex couples in superannuation, wills and the like. That’s when we’ll need our friends more than ever, dancing to the same song.
Too true. How can we ask for equal rights when we condone such discrimination. As Dow points out, perhaps McFeely and his bouncers can exercise their discretion, rather than bending the law to suit their special needs – a tactic that will no doubt inflame the right.
We wag our finger not only at McFeely and his hotel, but at the Melbourne Human Rights tribunal. We’re all for gay rights, but not at the expense of others’ – even if they are homophobe dickwads.
‘Gay Men Felt Like A Zoo Exhibit’ [Sky News]
Gay Bar Wins Right To Out Straights [Same Same]
Don’t lock out the heterosexuals [The Age]
Paul Raposo
First off, I think it kinda stinks that we have to register to post comments now.
Secondly, I support the ban. I’ve been to bars and clubs that have been run over with hets and it’s annoying. The woman cackle at us like we’re their “Will”; where ever there are drunk straight women, you’ll find drunk straight men, which is even worse; lastly, how the hell are we suppose to know which are the straight men and which are the gay men?
We are not welcome to be ourselves at their bars, yet we’re suppose to open our arms and welcome them to ours?
I got into it a few years back with a “punk” libertarian who showed up and started despairing the gay men who were hitting on him. It’s a gay bar and he was pissed off that men were hitting on him, for Christ’s sake.
Not even realizing that if he took his leather pants, pink hair and piercings into a het bar, he wouldn’t get one drink down before he got his ass kicked for being a freak. Which is probably why he was in a gay bar in the first place. Well, he got his ass kicked that night and never came back.
They have hundreds of their own bars, leave ours alone. If it takes ban, then so be it. The day I can dance with a male date in a straight bar and not be harassed, or asked to leave by the bouncer, I’ll have no problem with hets in our bars.
Alexa
Huh? Australian lesbians go to gay bars to make fun of and intimidate the guys there? Seriously?
Martini-boy
Me and my boy once agreed to go into a gay bar and chill out for a while with a couple of our lady-friends. Lo and behold, we had to change plans when the boyfriend of one of our friends said he didn’t want to go because he felt uncomfortable with the idea of having men hit on him.
Interestingly enough, the ladies all decided to go to a straight bar instead (to please the guy), without even considering how we would feel about being hit on (aka the opposite side of the story). Heck, the dude and his girl could get their freak on in the gay dancefloor; my boy and I would probably get the shit beat out of us if we were to do the same in the bar we had planned to go to.
Martini-boy
So, in a nutshell, I somewhat agree with the ban: let the heteros get a sense of what it’s like to be shut off for once. That, or let them sign a “terms and conditions” form that bars them from scoffing at gay guys and making out with their girls.