Turned away gay pair win damages

A gay couple who were refused a double room at a British hotel run by a Christian couple have won damages after a judge ruled they were treated unlawfully.

Martyn Hall, 46, and his civil partner, Steven Preddy, 38, were turned away from Peter and Hazelmary Bull's hotel in Cornwall in September 2008.

The pair sought up to £5000 ($10,300) in damages after claiming they had been victims of sexual discrimination.

At a hearing last month, the Bulls denied the claim, arguing that they had a long-standing policy of banning all unmarried couples, heterosexual and gay, from sharing a bed at the Chymorvah Private Hotel in Marazion, near Penzance.

Bull, 70, and his wife, 66, said the policy, which they had operated since buying the hotel in 1986, was based on their beliefs about marriage and did not suggest they were hostile to people's sexual orientation.

But this week Judge Andrew Rutherford said social attitudes and the law had changed in Britain over the last 50 years, citing the smoking ban and the decriminalisation of homosexuality as examples.

"It is inevitable that such laws will from time to time cut across deeply held beliefs of individuals and sections of society for they reflect the social attitudes and morals prevailing at the time that they are made," he said.

"These laws have come into being because of changes in social attitudes.

"The standards and principles governing our behaviour which were unquestioningly accepted in one generation may not be so accepted in the next.

"I am satisfied as to the genuineness of the defendants' beliefs and it is, I have no doubt, one which others also hold. It is a clear example of how social attitudes have changed over the years, for it is not so long ago that these beliefs of the defendants would have been those accepted as normal by society at large. Now it is the other way around."

James Dingemans QC, representing the Bulls, said the couple had been "vilified as objects of fun" in newspapers for their policy.

"The defendants respectfully submit that their policy is directed at sex and not to sexual orientation and is lawful," he said.

Hotel employee Bernie Quinn hinted that Preddy and Hall's booking had been a "set up" by gay rights group Stonewall but the group denied the allegation.

- INDEPENDENT