Australia: Court says its okay for gay bar to ban straights

Australia is usually one of those rare places where common sense prevails. But that's not the situation in Melbourne today, as a court there ruled that a gay bar can ban heterosexuals.

From News.com Australia:

VCAT deputy president Cate McKenzie said if heterosexual men and women came into the venue in large groups, their number might be enough to swamp the gay male patrons.

"This would undermine or destroy the atmosphere which the company wishes to create," Ms McKenzie said in her findings.

"Sometimes heterosexual groups and lesbian groups insult and deride and are even physically violent towards the gay male patrons."

Some women even booked hens' nights at the venue using the gay patrons as entertainment, Ms McKenzie said.

"To regard the gay male patrons of the venue as providing an entertainment or spectacle to be stared at, as one would at an animal at a zoo, devalues and dehumanizes them," she said.

If they heterosexuals are physically violent towards the gay men, then the police should be called. I'm curious about the claim on lesbians doing the same thing.

Technorati tags: gay lesbian Australia melbourne law