Gay couple refused hotel room win discrimination claim

A gay couple that was refused a double room in a hotel in Cornwall has been awarded compensation by a Bristol county court judge in a discrimination claim under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. The landmark ruling - funded and supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) - is one of the first to be made under the regulations and is likely to afford gay couples more protection in the future.

Devout Christian hotel owners Peter and Hazel Bull refused to allow civil partners Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy a double room because the Bulls do not believe in sex before marriage. They defended their actions on the grounds that their refusal had nothing to do with the couple's sexual orientation but "everything to do with sex", claiming that the restriction applied equally to unmarried heterosexual couples. The judge rejected their defence, saying the right of the defendants to manifest their religion is not absolute and "can be limited to protect the rights and freedoms of the claimants". He ruled that the owners had directly discriminated against the couple on the grounds of their sexual orientation and ordered them to pay the couple £1,800 each in compensation.

EHRC legal director John Wadham, as reported in the Guardian, said: "The right of an individual to practice their religion and live out their beliefs is one of the most fundamental rights a person can have, but so is the right not to be turned away by a hotel just because you are gay. The law works both ways. Hotel owners would similarly not be able to turn away people whose religious beliefs they disagreed with. When Mr and Mrs Bull chose to open their home as a hotel, their private home became a commercial enterprise. This decision means that community standards, not private ones, must be upheld."

Preddy and Hall told the Guardian: "We're really pleased that the judge has confirmed what we already know - that in these circumstances our civil partnership has the same status in law as a marriage between a man and a woman, and that regardless of each person's religious beliefs, no one is above the law."