Tory Chris Grayling exposed on attitude to gay equality rights

(Source: Guardian)

Following revelations in my previous post regarding B&B owner’s refusal to allow a gay couple to stay on her premises, it has become clear that politics is not above prejudice.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary has illustrated his ignorance for the very law he voted in, and would have to uphold if the conservatives are to win the General Election.

The party is amid a potentially crucial row over statements recorded secretly exposing Grayling’s remark that “people who ran bed and breakfasts in their homes should "have the right" to turn away homosexual couples”, it was reported in today’s Guardian online.

The recordings are a direct indication that leading Tory party members and potential future cabinet ministers are out-of-touch, displaying all the hallmarks of prejudice and old-school thinking on equality.

The recording – that will be featured in our video interview with the Green Party’s Andrew Gray who is campaigning for an advancement of LGBT rights in the political as well as social sphere – could damage Cameron’s attempts at re-branding his party as a modern, liberal and socially accepting party of government.

Grayling 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."

The common argument here, along with the majority of Daily Mail online user comments (this is a blog, so I am happy to be able to make such observations without editorial lines to consider!), is that there remains a distinction between a hotel and a B&B.

Fiona from Stoke-on-Trent says: “If I ran a B&B I most certainly would not allow dogs or children under 10. Would anyone go running to the press & say I was wrong. Don't think so.” - disallowing dogs does not equate to discriminating against human beings.

S. Page from Chesterfield states: “We all have our own views on delicate subjects like homosexuality and if we can't assert those views in our home then something is radically wrong.” - here again we see the confusion with what constitutes a home and a business.

These statements back up Chris Grayling’s approach to the matter, but they are inherently flawed in their logic and on their understanding of the law. Yes, there is a distinction between home and hotel. Yet as soon as you provide any form of goods or services for profit, you immediately blur those lines.

As Grayling pointed out: "If they are running a hotel on the high street, I really don't think that it is right in this day and age that a gay couple should walk into a hotel and be turned away because they are a gay couple, and I think that is where the dividing line comes."

This is in complete contradiction to the Equality Act (2007) which, as Ben Summerskill of gay rights group Stonewall states:

"...is perfectly clear. If you are going to offer the public a commercial service – and B&Bs are a commercial service – then people cannot be refused that service on the grounds of sexuality. No one is obliged to run a B&B, but people who do so have to obey the law."

He told the Guardian: I don't think anyone, including the Tories, wants to go back to the days where there is a sign outside saying: 'No gays, no blacks, no Irish.'"

Grayling voted in favour of legislation that put the rights of everyone's freedom to buy goods or services without discrimination. This discrimination falls under sexual orientation as strongly as it does race and ethnicity.

It is a potentially damaging case for David Cameron in the final month before the election – expected to be announced by Gordon Brown on Tuesday.

Moreover it has proven that even those at the heights of power, responsible for not only advancing our rights as human beings, but protecting the rights of the most vulnerable in society, are capable of the same level of prejudice and bigotry and ignorant remarks and ideological inclinations as some members of the general public. Remarks that entire communities of people – gay and straight – have been fighting to end in a supposedly tolerant, democratic and liberal society.