Britian knows how to put bigot Christians in their place

[Optimistic Mysanthrope]

Hmm, now why does that attitude sound familiar?

[Chas]

Hmm, now why does that attitude sound familiar?

Yes, let's let all the inns refuse to let a certain class of people stay there.

Let's go for separate but equal because that works so well.

[Tiberius]

Yes, let's let all the inns refuse to let a certain class of people stay there.

Well now that is technically legal, assuming we are basing "class" on wealth.

Try going into an expensive hotel with very little money and getting a room for the night.

What does discrimination by business actually achieve? It will reduce your customer base (from both the type of person you discriminate against, and anyone who thinks your discrimination policy is abhorrent), which would in turn reduce your profit, and would lead to your competitors being able to out-maneuver you in the market.

Honestly, which store do you think would do better in 99% of neighbourhoods, one that discriminates or one that doesn't?

[Chas]

Yes, let's let all the inns refuse to let a certain class of people stay there.

Well now that is technically legal, assuming we are basing "class" on wealth.

Try going into an expensive hotel with very little money and getting a room for the night.

What does discrimination by business actually achieve? It will reduce your customer base (from both the type of person you discriminate against, and anyone who thinks your discrimination policy is abhorrent), which would in turn reduce your profit, and would lead to your competitors being able to out-maneuver you in the market.

Honestly, which store do you think would do better in 99% of neighbourhoods, one that discriminates or one that doesn't?

You know perfectly well that's not what is referred to in the law.

A business in a neighborhood that is largely one ethnicity (because of discrimination by renters and sellers) will have businesses that are free to discriminate along the same lines.

Sure, let's open the door for apartheid.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Yes, let's let all the inns refuse to let a certain class of people stay there.

Well now that is technically legal, assuming we are basing "class" on wealth.

Try going into an expensive hotel with very little money and getting a room for the night.

I think that's an unfair comparison.

You can't do anything about sexuality, just like you can't do anything about race or colour.

'Wealth', however one defines the term, can be changed, either through self determination and self-actualization, or through welfare reform and structural change. Even if one disagrees with that, you can still win the lottery. The point is that wealth in monetary terms can be changed through a myriad of circumstances, some through luck, some through dedication and effort.

I don't think it's right to compare a business model that discriminates on price to one that discriminates on a variable that is impossible to change.

What does discrimination by business actually achieve? It will reduce your customer base (from both the type of person you discriminate against, and anyone who thinks your discrimination policy is abhorrent), which would in turn reduce your profit, and would lead to your competitors being able to out-maneuver you in the market.

Honestly, which store do you think would do better in 99% of neighbourhoods, one that discriminates or one that doesn't?

Depends on the neighborhood, and what is deemed socially, morally, and just as importantly, legally acceptable.

---

I mean... I'm torn on this. On the one hand, discrimination/bigotry are wrong and horrible and crimes against humanity, but on the other, people should be free to run their businesses as they see fit. I don't understand why a gay couple would want to extend their business to a couple of cowardly bigots anyway.

Just to add some clarity, and if I'm remembering this right, the guys didn't know that the B&B owners were homophobic bigots until they turned up at the hotel and asked for a double bed.

I think they booked it in good faith that they would have an uneventful stay there, but I'm willing to be proven wrong.

[Rev. Rye]

Yeah. Still torn. I don't agree with bigotry, but I don't feel private businesses should be told how to run their businesses. And like Chad said, if people want to lose business, that's their... business. Also, I don't know why an interracial couple would want to stay at a B&B where they're not welcome, either.

Edit: grammar.

Of course, the hope should be that the public calls them out on their bullshit when they find out about this. If they don't, then there's a big problem.

[Minimalist]

but the fact that the US passed the Civil Rights Act to me demonstrates that they were at a point of societal change,

Um...we had a president who championed the Act and who had just had his fucking head blown off and STILL the bill was fillibustered by members of his own party. Yes, Johnson got it passed but could not have done so without the help of Senator Everitt Dirksen a republican. Johnson noted when he signed the bill that he had just lost the South for the Democrats for 50 years. His time is up and the whites in the south are getting worse, not better.

So much for "societal change."