Barred: Discrimination or Violence Prevention?

If you live in Melbourne and you know what’s what, you probably know the Peel Hotel. Ah, the Peel. The wonderful pub on Peel Street, Collingwood. Possibly the gayest of gay nightspots this side of the river. You’ve no doubt heard, seen, or witnessed a night at the Peel. Some Britney Spears, some Belinda Carlisle, and lots of gay men of all calibres. And some hetero boys and girls too.

Until now, perhaps.

The owners of the Peel Hotel applied to ban straight men and women to try to prevent ‘sexually based insults and violence’ towards its gay patrons. And they have succeeded - the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has granted the pub an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act, which effectively means they can prohibit entry to non-homosexuals. This means the Peel can effectively become one of Melbourne’s few men-only venues.

I’m kind of in two minds about this. I think. I don’t know…

On one hand, good. Gay men (and women) should be able to dance, drink, laugh, make-out, and go nuts as much as they like without being abused verbally or physically by stupid, narrow-minded, cruel, annoying, aggressive people. If the Peel is one of the (possibly very few) places in Melbourne where this can happen, then more power to them. Keep the stupid arsehole heteros out and party.

However, are all heterosexuals stupid arseholes? No. They are not. So how come the nice straight kids aren’t invited to the party? Does this mean I can’t go the Peel with my gay friends anymore? Am I going to miss out on a super fun night out? That’s not fair, I love super fun nights out.

And, imagine if some straight jock dickheads tried to prohibit homosexuals from their pub? No freaking way would that one stand up in court. That’s discrimination. Isn’t this kind of the same?

But, think about it; there are approximately thirty-two-billion places in Melbourne for straight people to hang out, and very, very few gay-friendly ones. So maybe this is a fair decision.

Then again, pubs and bars have the right to refuse entry anyway. Why did the Peel have to make it about sexuality? After all, I’m sure the owners of the Peel, and their punters, aren’t completely anti-heterosexuals. Surely, they are simply trying to prevent ignorant dickheads from upsetting or hurting their patrons… so wouldn’t they be denying entry to them anyway? Instead of a ‘No Heterosexuals’ policy, shouldn’t they have a ‘No Homophobes’ policy? Or a ‘Just Play Nice’ policy?

I can’t decide. But I figure, probably fair enough - because this doesn’t mean all straight people are banned from the Peel forever. Of course they want to keep homophobic, gay-haters out. So, if they reckon you’re hetero, but decent, fun and not a moron; they’ll probably let you in. It just means they have the right to turn away certain straight people if they don’t want them there.

And, if you think about it; if you were a bouncer, a door-bitch, or a guest at a massive gay dance party, you’d probably want the law on your side when a bus-load of Ku Klux Klansmen, a redneck footy team, and a crew of fundamentalist Christians came a-knocking on your door.