Governments just cannot resist interfering. Meg Munn, a junior Minister in the Brown govt, has said that,
'Muslim or Christian guest house owners who refuse to accept homosexual couples must impose a sleeping together ban on all other guests.'
According to Munn, if gays are turned away, the only way a Christian or Muslim guest house owner can lawfully stay in business is if he or she offers single bedrooms to all guests.
This is ridiculous for several reasons.i) It is a gross infringement on private property rights. Your home, you make the rules (provided no-one gets hurt).
ii) If certain religious groups really believe homosexuality is a sin, then that is their (odd and bigoted) lookout. Provided they are not calling for violence against gays, it really is their call as to whether to accept them into their home or not.
iii) It is yet another example of the nannying tendency of govt.
Let the market put the bigots out of business. If a company prefers to hire inferior heterosexuals or a hotelier to ban gays, they will soon go out of business. That is the way the market works. By imposing orders on hoteliers, the govt will only make martyrs out of them.
Giles Fraser, the vicar of Putney and a leading Church of England liberal, shows his total lack of understanding of liberty,
"It is nonsense for the Government to allow any loopholes for religious homophobia. Bigotry is bigotry whether it's dressed up in the language of faith or not."
Giles, it is not up to governments to 'allow' bigotry. That is the path to totalitarianism you utter moron.
Other opinions at Stumbling and Mumbling, Devil's Kitchen, and Nation of Shopkeepers.
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