Ben Summerskill's comment above sums up nicely the situation surrounding the court case where gay couple, Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy, were turned away from a guesthouse in Cornwall on homophobic grounds. Landlords Peter and Hazelmary Bull were ordered to pay £1,800 in compensation to both men but it still shows that bigotry exists within society.
Astonishingly Mrs Bull claimed after the case "a lot has been said about equality laws but it seems some people are more equal than others". Is Mrs Bull claiming that section 28, banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools during Thatcher's era, an unequal age of consent for decades, prejudice where family members turn their backs on siblings or children due to their sexual orientation, right and that the sensible repeal of the first two points wrong?
As an openly gay man I know we have taken great strides in terms of achieving equality with our heterosexual, bisexual and transgendered citizens since the 1960's when sexual activity between two consenting males was illegal. However it is a timely reminder that prejudice as outrageous as the Bull's still exists and as a Lib Dem I will do everything possible to oppose such behaviour which has no place in the United Kingdom in 2011.
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