Irish Hotel Slapped With Fine for Anti-Gay Discrimination
Tuesday 16th September 2008
A Galway hotel has learned the hard way that discriminating against gays comes at a price.
Cannons in Eyre Square, where the hotel is located. Image by Joe Desbonnet
The Eyre Square Hotel in the town has been hit with a €3000 fine after an Irish Equality Tribunal found that the hotel discriminated against two gay men.
Peter McGuffin and Enda Harte had organized a social event for gays at the hotel in 2005. Having used hotels owned by the same person as the Eyre Square for similar events in the past, they had no reason to believe that there would be an issue.
However, the manager of the hotel became enraged. He told them two days before the event was to occur that it must be cancelled, and that he was mad that gay events were being held in his hotel. Although he was convinced not to cancel the event on short notice, the manager seems to have persuaded his co-worker at a sister hotel, where similar events had been held, to stop the group from meeting there again. Hotel workers even tore down fliers for the event that had been posted around the city.
McGuffin and Harte filed a complaint with an equality tribunal, which found that the hotels' management had engaged in discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, although the owners claimed to have cancelled the social events because they were unprofitable.
The hotel is now being forced to pay each man €1500 and get in line with appropriate equality practices and corporate social responsibility standards.
Do you want to join Pinke's team of paid writers? We're looking for writers all over the world to write about the LGBT issues that matter all over the globe. We're particularly looking for travel writers and writers in Asia/Africa/the Middle East, but we'll consider anyone with great writing skills and an interest in the subject. We also want writers who can cover issues on ALL the LGBT community, including the transgender community. Email Pinke editor Robert Knox with a writing sample for more information.
Cannons in Eyre Square, where the hotel is located. Image by Joe Desbonnet
The Eyre Square Hotel in the town has been hit with a €3000 fine after an Irish Equality Tribunal found that the hotel discriminated against two gay men.
Peter McGuffin and Enda Harte had organized a social event for gays at the hotel in 2005. Having used hotels owned by the same person as the Eyre Square for similar events in the past, they had no reason to believe that there would be an issue.
However, the manager of the hotel became enraged. He told them two days before the event was to occur that it must be cancelled, and that he was mad that gay events were being held in his hotel. Although he was convinced not to cancel the event on short notice, the manager seems to have persuaded his co-worker at a sister hotel, where similar events had been held, to stop the group from meeting there again. Hotel workers even tore down fliers for the event that had been posted around the city.
McGuffin and Harte filed a complaint with an equality tribunal, which found that the hotels' management had engaged in discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, although the owners claimed to have cancelled the social events because they were unprofitable.
The hotel is now being forced to pay each man €1500 and get in line with appropriate equality practices and corporate social responsibility standards.
Do you want to join Pinke's team of paid writers? We're looking for writers all over the world to write about the LGBT issues that matter all over the globe. We're particularly looking for travel writers and writers in Asia/Africa/the Middle East, but we'll consider anyone with great writing skills and an interest in the subject. We also want writers who can cover issues on ALL the LGBT community, including the transgender community. Email Pinke editor Robert Knox with a writing sample for more information.
