Lesbian wins pay-out over pub drinks ban
16/05/2005 - 17:08:12A publican was ordered to pay €1,000 to a lesbian he refused to serve because he did not want “her kind” in his bar.
The Equality Tribunal ruled the pub owner had breached equal status laws, was unjustified in barring the woman and had caused her hurt and humiliation.
The woman claimed she went into a pub with a female friend on May 9, 2003, but was asked to leave. She maintained the publican refused her because he knew she was gay.
The equality officer heard that the bar owner told the gay woman he “did not want your kind in here” and made a remark about lesbians.
At the hearing it also emerged the claimant met the respondent on the street a number of days after the incident and she sought an explanation from him. None was forthcoming, the tribunal heard.
The bar owner totally rejected claims that he discriminated against gay people.
He claimed the women were asked to leave as the complainant’s friend had been with a man who knocked over glasses in the pub weeks before.
But the equality officer found he could not accept the publican’s claim that he had the right to bar a person because they had been with someone who had accidentally and unknowingly knocked over glasses weeks before.
The equality officer also said it was especially difficult to accept the claims when neither had been told that a spillage had occurred.
He also said he could not understand why the publican did not use the opportunity to fully explain his position to the complainant when they met in the street some days later.
The publican said he had been approached in a civil and courteous manner, but failed to offer the woman an explanation for his actions.
The equality officer said it was difficult to accept the evidence of the publican and that the complainant’s account of events and explanation for the refusal to be the more credible.
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