LONDON — Two Christian innkeepers have been convicted of sexual discrimination for refusing to allow a gay couple to share a double room at their hotel in Cornwall, England.
Peter and Hazelmary Bull also were ordered by the Bristol County court to pay about $5,700 for turning civil partners Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy away from their bed and breakfast.
The hoteliers had argued they were trying “to live and work in accordance with our Christian faith” when they refused to let the two men share a bed.
“Our double-bed policy was based on our sincere beliefs about marriage, not hostility to anybody,” Hazelmary Bull told the court. She insisted the policy “was applied equally and consistently to unmarried heterosexual couples and homosexual couples.”
But Judge Andrew Rutherford said the Bulls’ views were outdated and violated Britain’s Equality Act of 2007.
“It is inevitable that laws will, from time to time, cut across the deeply held beliefs of individuals and sections of society, so they reflect the social attitudes and morals prevailing at the time they are made,” the judge said in his 12-page ruling. “Not so very long ago,” he added, “these beliefs would have been those accepted as normal by society at large. Now it is the other way around.” (TAB)
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