Today's article in the Observer came as no surprise to me. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling was recorded as saying:
"I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences," he said. "I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."Supporting such behaviour is unacceptable. B & B owners who display such hostility to gay couples are no better than those who used to display signs saying "No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish". This sort of behaviour no longer happens and is universally condemned as well as illegal. It is also illegal to refuse a room to gay couples and should be seen as just as unacceptable.
Everybody has the right to their opinions, regardless of how abhorrent we find them. What they don't have a right to do is to offer a selective service to the public based on their beliefs. If people hold homophobic beliefs they are clearly not suitable candidates for running a bed and breakfast.
This latest episode is just the latest in a series of blunders on LGBT rights by the Tories, most recent being the interview Cameron did with the Gay Times which showed a shocking lack of ignorance about what his colleagues were up to in the European parliament re LGBT rights. When he showed that he was unaware that Conservative MEPs refused to support a motion which condemned a new homophobic law in Lithuania.
The Tory voting record on LGBT rights also proves interesting reading. The vote on the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 was only supported by 29 Conservative MPs . The following members of the shadow cabinet voted against the bill:
Kenneth Clarke
Mark Francois
Dominic Grieve
Erik Pickles
George Young
Many more members of the party were conspicious by their absence with a Conservative turnout of 58.2%
