Gay groups and commentators welcomed a court ruling which said Christian hotel owners had acted unlawfully when they refused to let a gay couple stay in a double room.

Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy told media the decision showed no-one was above the law.   They had taken Peter and Hazelmary Bull to court after they were turned away from the couple’s hotel in Cornwall in September 2008 after having booked a double room in the Hotel.

In a ruling at Bristol County Court, Judge Andrew Rutherford said the Bulls had acted unlawfully and ordered them to pay the couple £1,800 each in damages and their legal costs.  Mr Hall, 46, and Mr Preddy, 38, from Bristol, made the claim for sexual orientation discrimination under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.

They said: “We’re really pleased that the judge has confirmed what we already know – that in these circumstances our civil partnership has the same status in law as a marriage between a man and a woman, and that, regardless of each person’s religious beliefs, no-one is above the law.”

Mr and Mrs Bull, who run the Chymorvah Private Hotel in Marazion near Penzance, Cornwall, were backed by the Christian Institute. They said they would consider appealing against the decision, which means the case could be heard at the High Court and in Europe.

“We are obviously disappointed with the result. Our double-bed policy was based on our sincere beliefs about marriage, not hostility to anybody,” Mrs Bull said. “It was applied equally and consistently to unmarried heterosexual couples and homosexual couples, as the judge accepted.

“We are trying to live and work in accordance with our Christian faith. As a result we have been sued and ordered to pay £3,600. But many Christians have given us gifts, so thanks to them we will be able to pay the damages.”

Mrs Bull added: “I do feel that Christianity is being marginalised in Britain. The same laws used against us have been used to shut down faith-based adoption agencies. Much is said about ‘equality and diversity’ but it seems some people are more equal than others.”

I’m sure there would be mass outrage if gay owned establishments operated a ban on Christian people staying or entering because Christianity is against their views.  They would be vilified in the media and elsewhere.

MarriagEquality grew out of an initiative introduced to support the case of Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan to have their Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland. MarriagEquality argues that lesbians and gay men should have the right to marry, in a civil registry office, and gain the same legal rights associated with marriage for themselves and their families.

Dr. Katherine Zappone and Dr. Ann Louise Gilligan are both women and Irish citizens. They live in Ireland . Dr. Zappone is a public policy research consultant and member of the Human Rights Commission. Dr. Gilligan is an academic and works as a lecturer at St. Patrick’s College, Dublin. They have lived together as a de facto couple for 25 years, and are both salaried income earners and joint owners of a family home and one other property in Ireland.

They are fighting for the right to marry, they are fighting for equality, they are fighting on behalf of every single gay man and lesbian in Ireland.

Read more about their fight, Marriage Equality !

7 out of 10 people believe in life after death, almost 30% of people skip lunch, 80% of lipsticks contain fish products, 68% of the population have little faith in a politicians ability to tell the truth! Have your views heard and counted so they can really make a difference. YouGov surveys are used by respected newspapers, TV stations, companies, organisations and even governments. Join the YouGov panel here and get paid for your views!

Vocal activist Jasyme Cannick received the virtual equivalent of a beat down for not buying a one-way ticket on the gay marriage gravy train back in mid-2008. Her argument prompted a riot of offbeat comments on Advocate.com. She stood her ground. It was clear that the “us” in LGBT only appears when someone’s counting heads. In her op-ed, Cannick wrote:

“I agree with the basic principle that gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry each other. The way I see it, as long as we’re being taxed like everyone else in this country, we should be extended the same benefits, rights, and privileges as everyone else. That has never changed for me. What did change for me was my willingness to actively engage myself in a struggle that’s been from the beginning, and continues to be, elitist.”

Read the rest at Ramon Johnson’s Gay Life Blog!

Read the rest at Freedom to Marry!

I knew I had to do something. So I came out thinking maybe I could get a few more people talking about what gay is and how discrimination hurts. And if I could start a conversation, then maybe a few of those folks would start to open their minds and we’d all move a little closer to equality for all.

But me talking in front of the cameras is only part of it. We know that one-on-one conversations are the best way to open people’s minds, so what we need to do now is get those conversations started. We all need to talk to our friends, that straight couple across the hall or that favorite cashier at the grocery store.

That’s why I’m helping launch Let California Ring’s “I Do” campaign.

“I Do” is our chance to be loud and proud–to show how much we support the freedom to marry. It’s our chance to spark conversations to open minds.

Show your support for the freedom to marry –and start conversations—with “I Do” gear: t-shirts, lawn signs, bumper stickers and more.

They say the hardest part of a conversation is the first line – well, let I Do take care of that and you just do the rest.

Display your gear with pride (and not just to the dance clubs, boys) and folks will start asking you, “What’s I Do?” And that’s your chance – your chance to tell your story, our story, and our chance to open hearts and minds.

Oh, all the “I Do” products are union made in the United States and proceeds go toward marriage education work in California.

I do. How about you?

Warmly,

Wanda Sykes
Board of Directors
Equality California Institute

To kick off blogging on Straight Talk on Marriage, Evan Wolfson wrote, “Conversations with the circles of people around us are the prerequisite to winning, the key to helping them push past their discomfort, complacency, or indifference to becoming supportive of our equality.”

Having conversations is the single most important action you can take towards achieving marriage equality nationwide. Check our blog all week for special guest bloggers!

Read all the post by clicking here.

Freedom to Marry – The Gay & Non Gay Partnership Working to Win Marriage Equality Nationwide!

Our organization has two primary goals:

* To create by election a leadership committee made up of members of the gay community and its supporters to act as our representatives and spokespersons.
* To show that we, the gay community, are just like everyone else. We come from all walks of life; we have jobs and families and homes; we worry about the economy and the environment; we have hopes and dreams and fears; and most importantly, we are human. We are equal.

Find out more and join the cause at Citizens For Equality!

We got the following plea from a visitor of Best Gay Blogs…

“We have no large GLBT rights organization here, and nobody seems to know about Sean Kennedy outside of South Carolina. PLEASE HELP BRING THIS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE TO NATIONAL ATTENTION!”

Stephen Andrew Moller pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he punched 20-year-old Kennedy in the face in the parking lot of the former Brew’s Pub on Pelham Road in May 2007 after a night of drinking.

Please continue reading here

On Monday afternoon, more than a half-century after they became a couple, Lyon and Martin plan to become the first same-sex couples to legally exchange marriage vows in San Francisco and among the first in the state.

Read the entire article and see video at ABC News.