Tolerance should be granted to homophobes...as well as homosexuals

Published: 09 Apr 2010

Tolerance should be granted to homophobes...as well as homosexuals

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A. Tolerance should be granted to homophobes...as well as homosexuals

Background

Gay rights are back on the agenda after a gay couple, Michael Black and John Morgan, were prevented from taking up a booking they had made at a B&B in Berkshire: the owner, Susanne Wilkinson, had disapproved of their relationship for religious reasons. The row was further inflamed last weekend when Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling was quoted as saying: "I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."

This instantly lost the Tories five percentage points of support among homosexuals, according to polls carried out by Pink News, and caused the founder of the Conservative Party's biggest group campaigning for gay rights to say she will be voting Labour at the general election. But just how liberal should a society be? Is such dislike of gay sex always an unacceptable prejudice? Or should homosexuals learn to tolerate the limits to other people’s tolerance of their lifestyles?

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