Banning straight men

[MH07]

Oh, Speedo, and one more thing:

Nice pics! :wink:

 

[SpeedoGuy]

Oh, Speedo, and one more thing:

Nice pics! :wink:

Thnks!

 

[mindseye]

Almost all of the former British holdings (or current British holdings) (with the exception of US and South Africa) are pretty enlightened places.

Obviously, South Africa has struggled with institutional racism, and the lasting social and economic effects of apartheid, but the government is surprisingly progressive regarding lesbian and gay rights.

South Africa was the first nation in the world to explicitly include freedom from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in its constitution, and South Africa was the first African nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

Culturally, there's still widespread public opposition to same-sex rights, and hate crimes are still common there, and there are scattered problems with local law enforcement officers failing to prosecute these crimes. But at the national level, they're a lot farther along than we are.

 

[Mr. Snakey]

The owner did the right thing to protect his customers. This happened in my area with the straights going into a Gay bar and making trouble. Well low and behold there happen to be several Gay policemen in this town. A cop car is There all night. No more trouble. Even off duty. I wonder if gays started going into straight bars and doing this what would happen?

 

[dolf250]

The thread was here.

Ooops,
I have not been around as much as usual and did not realize that this has been done before.
Sorry.

So now you guys can't get into some bar in Australia? MUST SUCK TO BE YOU. :wink:

First, thanks for the kind words. I think this place has a good effect on most people (though there have been a few notable exceptions.)

I do honestly understand why it is not a huge deal. I also understand the wish to have something to call your own and not want “outsiders” there. You can be tolerant and respectful and 100% accepting of others in your life while wanting a place to retreat with people who are the same as you in some fashion. I know that gay and straight men share many things just as men and women share many things but I do not personally have a problem with a men's only club or womens only club. I have refrained from voting in my own poll because part of me thinks that discrimination weather against gay or straight men is wrong but a part of me can understand wanting a retreat. I have not been out to the bars except to work for many years and right now there is not a huge influx of gay men prowling most bars. If there were a 50% population of gay men in all of the clubs I may want a “straight only” bar, so I am not voting.

However, I stand by my assertion that if the straight men were disrespectful and aiming for a fight either having the doormen escort them out or having an “unofficial” policy of turning a blind eye when a group of customers gives them a sound thumping would have solved the problem without resorting to the courts. It may also open the door to court sanctioned discrimination going both ways in Australia. What about “gay only” neighbourhoods so that the residents do not have to feel threatened dealing with straights?

For now I will hope that it does not become a flame war; perhaps a fleshpile?

 

[HazelGod]

I wish I could move there. Instead, I'm at least moving from Little Rock back to HOUSTON

Too funny...I just landed in your little burg about an hour ago (several of my clients are based in LR). I've spent a little time here, and you're right...I would not imagine it to be a very gay-friendly place. I spent 5 years in College Station, and from what little I've seen of Little Rock, it has much more in common with CS than where I live now.

Before we were married, my wife lived in the West Univ. area of Houston, and she really knew the cultural spots (many either predominantly gay or at least gay-friendly) in the Rice village and Montrose neighborhoods. I don't know if it's still there, but one of the best dance clubs we ever hit was South Beach down in Montrose...mostly gay men sprinkled with a double-handful of hot girls and the random straight guy man enough to enjoy that kind of place. Badass techno/house mixes, hourly liquid nitrogen clouds, and lots of recreational pharmaceuticals...good times.

 

[MH07]

South Beach down in Montrose...mostly gay men sprinkled with a double-handful of hot girls and the random straight guy man enough to enjoy that kind of place. Badass techno/house mixes, hourly liquid nitrogen clouds, and lots of recreational pharmaceuticals...good times.

(SMILES) That would have been me, when I lived in Houston before, back when I was your age. Happy hour at Montrose Mining Co. with all the other geezers is more my speed now. :wink:

Welcome to Little Rock, though, from me.

Btw, nice pics from you as well!

 

[mindseye]

Ooops,
I have not been around as much as usual and did not realize that this has been done before.
Sorry.

No need to be sorry. The first time around, Shelby's cavilling snark about "equal rights" for straight people set a pretty bitter tone to the thread. Who can complain about a thoughtful encore?

 

[wingnut84]

I know most people here have busy schedules and are sometimes unable to read all of the posts in any given thread, especially when they're unnecessarily long and frequent. I have thus taken it upon myself to take one for the team and read all of MH07's posts for you guys and condense them into a more concise summary:

"Wah, wah, boo hoo, my pussy hurts."

 

[Oncamale28]

id say its discriminatory

 

[LeeEJ]

What does this have to do with the original post? I voted "it's discrimination but so what?" above. Why? Because you straight folks have thousands of places to go without invading the ONE OR TWO places we have.

I haven't voted yet, but have been leaning the same way.

 

[Matthew]

I know most people here have busy schedules and are sometimes unable to read all of the posts in any given thread, especially when they're unnecessarily long and frequent. I have thus taken it upon myself to take one for the team and read all of MH07's posts for you guys and condense them into a more concise summary:

"Wah, wah, boo hoo, my pussy hurts."

Boy, what a pathetic, snivelling little jackass you are turning out to be. And congrats on that Worst New Poster award! Tragically, I won't be tuning in to see if you decide to piss off before you eventually get banned. 65

 

[dong20]

Culturally, there's still widespread public opposition to same-sex rights, and hate crimes are still common there, and there are scattered problems with local law enforcement officers failing to prosecute these crimes. But at the national level, they're a lot farther along than we are.

No shit, and the South African Government being largely and increasingly ineffective doesn't help matters. But I was pleased when I read this a while back:

January 30, 2007: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has warned African churches against paying too much attention to the issue of homosexuality while ignoring real problems facing the continent.

"I am deeply, deeply distressed that in the face of the most horrendous problems -- we've got poverty, we've got conflict and war, we've got HIV/AIDS -- and what do we concentrate on? We concentrate on what you are doing in bed," Tutu told journalists in Nairobi during the World Social Forum.

During the January 20-25 WSF, homosexuals and their supporters took many Kenyans by surprise when they marched through Nairobi's streets clad in black T-shirts inscribed: "We are here, we are queer and we are proud."

Tutu likened discrimination against homosexuals to that faced by black people under South Africa's racist apartheid policies.

"To penalise someone because of their sexual orientation is like what used to happen to us; to be penalised for something which we could do nothing [about] -- our ethnicity, our race," said Tutu. "I would find it quite unacceptable to condemn, persecute a minority that has already been persecuted."

South Africa is one of very few African countries where Homosexuality is legal - along with Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Lesotho, Mali, Niger. Reunion, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe...the status of Egypt is a little 'murky'.

Of course, legality and acceptance don't necessarily coincide.

 

[SpeedoGuy]

Who can complain about a thoughtful encore?

We all know one or two who can.

 

[SteveWood]

Is discrimination ok? No. But as long as gays are persecuted in this country just for being gay, then it's ok for us to put up a sign, "Straights not welcome".

So discrimination is NOT OK, except when it IS OK? How long does that double standard apply ... until every trace of anti-gay bigotry is wiped from society? Does it apply in tolerant places like Palm Springs, too? What if a bar in Palm Springs was being "taken over," as you put it, by gays? Would it be OK for the owners to have a straights-only policy? After all, there are already plenty of gay (non-private) clubs in PS and surrounding towns.

Banning an entire group of people from a public establishment because of the behavior of a few members of that group is wrong, whether the banned group is a majority or minority in the community. The solution to bigotry is not more bigotry, even if the bigotry is directed against the majority culture.

By the way, I'm talking about public accommodations here, not private clubs, and I'm talking about morality and ethics, not the law. The law says different things in different places, and private clubs can choose to admit or refuse anyone they want to, for any reason at all, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[DC_DEEP]

I may not agree with it, but if it is a private club, they should pretty much be able to set their own rules for admission.

I say let the market/demand work its magic in cases like this. I know that if I had straight friends with whom I wanted to party, and the local club denied them admission, I would not patronize that club.

 

[rob_just_rob]

The irony is that people get barred from clubs all the time. That's what doormen do. If you aren't pretty enough, or dressed well enough, or know the right people, you won't get in. This is also discrimination (albeit discrimination on non-legislated grounds).

Clubs and restaurants are denying themselves customers by banning people. But that ought to be their right if they are privately owned. Presumably other clubs will open to meet the demand of those who were banned elsewhere.