I saw the article about the gay couple getting thrown out of a pub a day or so ago and I see that it is still rumbling on. In this instance, the response being pretty much that it is the landlord’s gaff and he makes the rules. If you don’t like the rules, go elsewhere. Which was my gut feeling on reading the original story when these two were whining to the press about how hard done by they were. You’d almost think they were the only people ever to be kicked out of a pub.
In essence, they were kissing and the landlord told them to stop or leave, They acknowledge that it was a polite request. It appears that they chose to ignore the polite request and were subsequently asked to leave. Whereupon much righteous beating of chests went on, including a rush to twatter, Friendface and the papers – accompanied of course, with the cry of homophobic bullying. Now for all we know, the landlord finds all kissing objectionable, whoever is doing it. Maybe he only objects when it is same sex couples, we don’t know. We do know that the police – who clearly have sorted out all the crime in London, so have plenty of time on their hands – are investigating this heinous crime on the part of the the landlord and I expect that we will see a court case in the not too distant future. And we will be treated to endless whining on the part of the two aggrieved kissers, followed by a smug-in when the landlord is convicted.
Ultimately though, the landlord has every right – or, in a civilised society, he damned well should have – to decide what he will or will not allow on his property. Personally, I find all public displays of affection discomforting. I don’t do it myself and prefer others not to indulge in my presence. Therefore, if I was the landlord, I’d have done exactly the same – no matter what the protagonists keep in their underpants or where they decide to put it.
Mr Williams said: “We had been kissing but my hands and James’s hands were above the table so I don’t think it’s really a problem.”
“Should I be stopped from kissing my partner in public just because I am not in a supposedly gay area?”
If you are on private property and the owner objects, yes.
“That is just utterly wrong, surely. We shouldn’t ghettoise people.”
No one is ghettoising you. You got thrown out of a pub because the landlord didn’t like the cut of your jib. Join the club and grow up. try another pub. Tell your mates to do likewise. It’s what I did.
Meanwhile, hundreds of gay rights’ protesters are planning a “kiss-in” at the pub in response to the alleged ejection.
Oh, please!
Apparently they were so offended and traumatised that after the first time the landlord told them to stop (thus revealing that he was a “homophobic bully”), they decided not to leave and never go back, but to purchase another round of drinks in his pub. And now hundreds of their friends are going to be turning up too? They seem to have it all backwards, but it sounds like a nice little earner for the pub.
If I was the landlord I’d make their protest an all ticket event at twenty five quid (Price includes One free cocktail) a time to the ‘protesters’.
The power of the pink pound and all that. 👿
Not to mention the publicity.
What do you think of the Daily Mash take on this?
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/kissing-lesbians-offered-free-bottle-of-wine-201104153724/
Very good.
For a successful defence, “the landlord would have to prove he had ejected heterosexual couples for similiarly overt displays of intimacy”
Why should he have to do anything of the sort? Innocent until proven guilty, surely. It should be up to the police to prove that he hasn’t thrown out heterosexuals for the same thing.
That, of course, if one takes it as read that there should be any offence at all since it’s his own property. But then, government have already shown that they can dictate which practices can or cannot go on in a pub, so the door is wide open now.
Perhaps our dim hospitality industry should have stood up for themselves more vociferously before. Just saying. 😉
So, couple are asked to stop doing x. They refuse, continue, and are ejected.
They then summon a group of pals and fellow attention seeking strangers to all congregate at the premises to collectively do x.
I thought this sort of thing ceased to be a splendid plan beyond the age of, oh, say five or six..?
The sequence apparently (collectively from all horses’ mouths courtesy of Radio 5 going all foamy-mouthed over this) goes thus:
Gay couple snogging and fumbling (they deny the fumbling).
Pub patron complains.
Landlord requests couple desist.
Couple desist for one hour.
Couple recommence snogging.
Landlord requests they leave.
They refuse.
Plain clothes off-duty police officer in pub backs up landlord.
Row ensues in which one half of couple declares himself a ‘reporter’.
Couple leaves premises.
Much tweeting by couple ensues.
Pretty much.
I can remember being asked, no ORDERED, to leave a pub 35 years ago simply because I walked in wearing a leather jacket, and carrying a crash hat. Can I claim backdated compensayshun???
By the way, I went back the following night by car and nothing was said.
Discrimination, see….
Yes, that’s exactly what happened to me. I didn’t run to the equivalent of Twitter or Facebook. Didn’t run whining to the press and didn’t stage a silly protest. Nor did I pronounce to the waiting media that the landlord’s behaviour was “unacceptable”. I simply never went back and told my friends about it so that they could give it a miss.
Isn’t it odd, and slightly creepy, how much the two in the photo look like each other!!
I was going to say that if it was my gaff I would have a team of heavy handed doormen ready for the Kiss In but the first two commenters came up with better ideas.
“Plain clothes off-duty police officer in pub backs up landlord.”
Interesting! I bet PSD are now looking into him or her for ‘behaviour not consistent with equality guidelines’…
No, the landlord is bang on. If he doesn’t want anyone kissing on his premises, regardless of sexual orientation, he must have the right to tell them to stop or leave. Their choice.
The two cretins in this instance are embarrassing themselves for all to see.
“I can remember being asked, no ORDERED, to leave a pub 35 years ago simply because I walked in wearing a leather jacket, and carrying a crash hat.”
Likewise in the early 80’s. Although the ‘No Bikers’ sign hanging over the main pub entrance went missing after we were refused service one night. Who me? Never saw a thing officer. (Probably because one of my mates was sitting on my shoulders unscrewing the discriminatory article at the time.)
A mate of mine went into a pub local to him, with his wife,after a bike ride and was informed by the landlord that they were unwelcome. A few weeks later he went back in with a bunch of mates, ordered lots of drinks and when the landord had then all lined up on the bar my mate said, ‘You don’t serve bikers do you? We’re all bikers so we’d better leave’ The landlord was mightly pissed off.
So, Lemmi and Bill, you don’t support the idea that on their own premises landlords can pick and choose who they serve, even if their prejudices are unfounded. Who’d have thought bikers had that socialist sense of entitlement and disdain for property rights?
I’ve heard variations of Lemmi’s story many times over the years, but never actually met anyone involved 😉 The usual variation is that the group turned up in their cars wearing suits.
Personally, I took the view that there were plenty of landlords worthy of having my custom.
Docbud. Nothing ‘political’ about it. We felt that since we weren’t the specific group of people who had caused the landlord trouble, the very least we could do was demonstrate our contempt for the whole irrational ‘no bikers’ prejudice. After that we took our custom elsewhere.
You’d have to have walked into a pub to be immediately threatened with a baseball bat or shotgun to appreciate the depth of feeling on our part of course.
One of the mates was me so yes it happened. DocBud, of course landlords can serve who they want, they shouldn’t be rude and offensive however when refusing someone on the grounds they don’t like their choice of personal transport.
It’s also our right to make a point. Never did go back to that pub.
Bill,
Perhaps gays have similar feelings. The point is that this post is about a landlord’s rights to serve who he (or she) likes on his (or her) premises. Your actions suggest that you believe he (or she) shouldn’t have that right with respect to your interest group.
Docbud, the difference is, that we bikers were sometimes threatened the minute we got through the door (Happened to me at least two dozen times), not merely ‘asked to leave’ for playing up and refusing to comply with a civil request. If we were asked to stop something, we did. Watering holes (for us) were few and far between where I lived, so we usually respected the Landlord’s right to refuse service. So no. There’s no comparison.
In the early eighties I was asked to leave a number of pubs when they found out I’d arrived on a Motorcycle. If the Landlord (As was generally the case) asked politely, I left, not farted around like some spoilt drama queen because I thought my ‘rights’ had been ‘infringed’.
That’s the difference.
Mind you, had I been the Landlord of that particular establishment I’d have welcomed the protest, charged the protesters admission on the night, and laughed all the way to the bank.
Lemmi and Bill,
Everyone is free to make a point but that does not include theft or criminal damage.
Not only do you not, apparently to me anyway, respect property rights, you also seem to believe that free speech should be constrained to prevent people being offended (a common complaint of the terrorist religion’s adherents) as you believe that some form of punishment is appropriate when you are offended.