My feeling is that a privately owned hotel should be able to ban anyone they want. Forcing someone to cater to a certain clientele is another form of discrimination (granted, it's discrimination against prejudice, but it's still a form of discrimination). In the end, it's bad for business to discriminate against a group of people for no good reason (especially if socially conscious people decide not to patronize the hotel).
But, then, I employ a little trick my Girl taught me. Whenever I see "gay" (or, in this case "straight") I substitute "black" (or "white", or other ethnicity). If I don't like the result then, I shouldn't like it now.
Still, we allow discrimination for many things -- sex is one big one. And, private businesses are allowed to discriminate on many levels -- even those prohibited to the state. After all, what does "right of assembly" mean if you can't choose with whom you assemble?
We fought long and hard and only recently got considered, full-on anti-discrimination laws here in the UK for everyone, as well as anti-hate crime laws. So my reaction to this news when I heard it was that it was appalling, retrograde, just... Not what's needed, not what's wanted. Not by me anyway. In the UK they would never get away with that now, neither do hotel or B&B owners who try to ban gay people. This is how it should be. EVERYONE deserves inclusivity and respect.
In business we cannot allow discrimination to go unchallenged. This is entirely different to your US 'right of assembly' - we are all free to congregate with who we choose, but we are not in the UK free to offer services to only one body of people unless one body of people is precisely who will benefit in any way: for example, couple counselling is no good for single people, they need a different kind of counselling dependent upon their issues.
And that is about it, really. Most services can be and should be offered to everyone.
An end to ghettos everywhere, self-inflicted or otherwise! x
On 5/30/2007 2:22 PM,
robkroese said…
My feeling is that a privately owned hotel should be able to ban anyone they want. Forcing someone to cater to a certain clientele is another form of discrimination (granted, it's discrimination against prejudice, but it's still a form of discrimination). In the end, it's bad for business to discriminate against a group of people for no good reason (especially if socially conscious people decide not to patronize the hotel).
On 6/05/2007 5:08 PM,
DeniseUMLaw said…
My instant reaction is to say -- Cool! Go for it!
But, then, I employ a little trick my Girl taught me. Whenever I see "gay" (or, in this case "straight") I substitute "black" (or "white", or other ethnicity). If I don't like the result then, I shouldn't like it now.
Still, we allow discrimination for many things -- sex is one big one. And, private businesses are allowed to discriminate on many levels -- even those prohibited to the state. After all, what does "right of assembly" mean if you can't choose with whom you assemble?
On 6/06/2007 9:20 AM,
Anonymous said…
We fought long and hard and only recently got considered, full-on anti-discrimination laws here in the UK for everyone, as well as anti-hate crime laws. So my reaction to this news when I heard it was that it was appalling, retrograde, just... Not what's needed, not what's wanted. Not by me anyway. In the UK they would never get away with that now, neither do hotel or B&B owners who try to ban gay people. This is how it should be. EVERYONE deserves inclusivity and respect.
In business we cannot allow discrimination to go unchallenged. This is entirely different to your US 'right of assembly' - we are all free to congregate with who we choose, but we are not in the UK free to offer services to only one body of people unless one body of people is precisely who will benefit in any way: for example, couple counselling is no good for single people, they need a different kind of counselling dependent upon their issues.
And that is about it, really. Most services can be and should be offered to everyone.
An end to ghettos everywhere, self-inflicted or otherwise! x
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