Christian B&B owners lose appeal....

Originally Posted by Chris

No, you have to allow the couple in question to speak for themselves. By all means say you disagree with them (I do, as it happens), but at least do them the respect of acknowledging that they have explicitly stated what their intentions were, and they were to honour the Christian concept of marriage. In law, a gay couple cannot (yet) be married. A civil partnership is not entirely the same.

They wanted to restrict their double beds to married couples. By their own testimony outside court this morning, they didn't even set out thinking about gay couples. A great many people of their generation don't - people of my parents' generation are sometimes surprised we have had single-sex couples in our rooms and not because they thought we would try to prevent it, but because many of them are still taken aback that that sort of thing actually goes on in public. In this case, discrimination against a gay couple was a side effect they hadn't even considered, not the stated intention of their policy.

I personally respect their policy and think the law is an ass for not doing so also

I agree. I think the couple in question were wrong-headed but if "equality" actually means anything, we have to leave room for people to be wrong-headed. Otherwise we haven't legislated for equality, we have legislated to create a hierarchy of rights.

Originally Posted by Chris

I agree. I think the couple in question were wrong-headed but if "equality" actually means anything, we have to leave room for people to be wrong-headed. Otherwise we haven't legislated for equality, we have legislated to create a hierarchy of rights.

Isn't that what we have done though ? if practicing a religion and the beliefs that go with it causes discrimination then that religion takes a back seat to civil rights ,that is how i see this result ,intended or not practicing their religious beliefs has caused the couple to fall foul of the law so their beliefs take second place

Originally Posted by martyh

Isn't that what we have done though ? if practicing a religion and the beliefs that go with it causes discrimination then that religion takes a back seat to civil rights ,that is how i see this result ,intended or not practicing their religious beliefs has caused the couple to fall foul of the law so their beliefs take second place

Yes, that is what has happened. The effect of the legislation is to force people to act contrary to their conscience, under pain of civil liability.

[spreadsheet]

I would have just told them the place was full and we had no vacancies

Which would have been a lie, and therefore counter to the way of life they are trying to live ...

[Pog66]

Originally Posted by Chris

Which would have been a lie, and therefore counter to the way of life they are trying to live ...

...but not against the law (of the land anyway )

[progers]

The point is that our Government, on rushing through the marriage bill, promised that peoples's beliefs on marriage would not be adversely affected - another broken promise

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 was passed in July 2013.

This story was from February 2012.