Posted on 03/29/2007 1:36:10 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
(Sumter) - A gay couple looking to rent a hotel room say they were turned away because of their sexuality.
"She wasn't discreet about it," said Jason Pickel, referring to a hotel employee. "She was not apologetic. She just said, 'We do not rent to gay people.'"
For the past two and a half years, Pickel and Darren Black Bear have been in a committed relationship. During a search for a temporary home, the couple says it went to Affordable Suites of America, a long-term stay hotel located on Gion Street in Sumter.
"We were inquiring about the price, deposits, extra person fee, and she asked who the room was going to be for, and I said for my partner and I,” Pickel said. “She said, 'Oh we don't rent to multiple people of the same sex.' I said, so you don't rent to gay couples? She said, 'No, we don't rent to gay people at all.'"
The website for Affordable Suites of America states the company does not allow children or pets in its suites, but there is no mention of same sex couples.
News19 contacted the hotel, posing as a potential renter, and inquired about two men staying in the same room. The receptionist who answered the phone told us the following: “Our policy is we don’t rent to two people of the same sex if we only have one bed.” “Is that your policy,” we asked. “That’s corporate policy because they only have one sleeping area.” We then asked, “Okay, but they can't share the bed?” "I suppose they could, but most men don’t want to," she said.
However, when News19 called the owner of the hotel, Carroll Atkisson, he says there had been some confusion. He says any couple can come to the place and they will rent to them, period. Atkisson says the policy was not mean to target homosexuals. He says they were just trying to stop two single people from being in the same bed.
Pickel and Black Bear say they still plan to seek legal action. "Everyone is floored, shocked and outraged," said Pickel. "We have contacted some of our friends who are activists."
Currently, there is no state law preventing a hotel from refusing service to a same-sex couple. However, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, gender, disability, or marital status.
"If they have a policy, it has to be maintained fair and equitably," says Tom Sponseller, President of the Hospitality Association of South Carolina. "At the beach, for example, because there are different bike weekends at the beach, that policy has to be enforced, and consistent."
There is currently a bill in the State Senate that addresses this issue. The measure, proposed by Charleston Democrat Robert Ford, would expand the Lodging Establishment Act to include prohibition of discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity.
That is what I thought.
The two biggest bike weekends are the Harley riders (mostly white) and the "Ricers" (mostly black).
It's another effort to equate sexual preference with race.
The hotel just did not want any brown stuff on the sheets, thats all.
Just think Gary Condit + luminol.
Hotels have enough problems with so called regular people....adding in gays and weirdos is enough to make the owner want to sell the darn place. You would be amazed at what slobs people can be.
It would make you stop and think twice about touching anything in these rooms.
I work p/t at a hotel in the office and have been known to send people on their way for various reasons. However, there is always a better way to get rid of them than saying we don't rent to gays. And, let me add that the transient ones that want to rent for a week or more are the worst in most cases.
Between walls that are too thin, bed bugs and questionable cleanliness, the decision to stay at any hotel is no longer easy.
Agree.
The people you have to hire these days don't clean the rooms as they should.
I work for a mom and pop type place and it is clean.....but they work darn hard to keep it that way. The owners go behind every housekeeper and double check the rooms even though two of the girls have worked there for years. Customers do compliment us on the cleanliness of the rooms.
If I have to travel, and I may shortly, I always take my own sheet, pillow etc. and Lysol. lol
The sodomites can just take their act down the road and find another hotel.
Government should never force a God-fearing citizen to provide fornicators a venue for their dirty deeds.
I believe most "anti-discrimination" laws are essentially unconstitutional, in any application of them to anyone or any enterprise in the private sector.
It is the government (and any agency of it) that cannot "discriminate" because the government is the government of all the people. So, the government must be "blind" to any distinction based on race or anything else, in conducting government business; and the government must enforce all laws equally.
But, to "discriminate" essentially means to apply your set of values and/or chose how you want to apply your set of values as long as that is an affirmative act on your part, defending your freedom and your rights, as opposed to a negative act to, based on your values, deny some one else their rights.
But, you are not obligated to buy, sell or associate with anyone whom you chose not to buy, sell or associate with. I do not have the right to demand you sell me something, just because I want it, and to pretend that one class or another has such a right would imply that we have no rights at all; because if we have no right to live by the values our life, faith and belief sets for us, then "freedom of speech" and the like are meaningless.
True enough. Except that in this case, it seems to be the desk clerk making up policy. From the article: "However, when News19 called the owner of the hotel, Carroll Atkisson, he says there had been some confusion. He says any couple can come to the place and they will rent to them, period."
That is not true and has never been true in the United States. Most Hotel law is based on English common law which includes the "weary traveler" doctrine. A "weary traveler" may not be turned away from public accomodations except for good reason. "Good reason" may include drunkenness or a well founded belief that they will engage in illegal activities. In recent years sodomy has lost its illegal status.
The Weary Traveler Doctrine originated in England where to turn a traveler away often meant that they were on the road at night and easy prey for the many robbers or worse. They were also at the mercy of the elements. An innkeeper had to have substantial and valid reasons to consign a traveler to those dangers. This concept carried over into our public accomodation laws. It was no accident that civil rights lawyers went after hotels and restaurants first because the basic precepts were already embedded in the law.
Property is a bundle of rights and responsibilities and an innkeeper's responsibilities are broader than those of the general populace.
There is no such thing as private property in the United States.
"She wasn't discreet about it."
LOL Would it have been better if she'd been discreet? LOL In a perfect world, there would be no gays and any gay practitioners would be sent immediately to prison! LOL
First of all their is no law in the United States which supercedes the Constitution not even English Common Law.
But to use your own argument against you, the whole point the hotel owner made was that they could not habitate the same bed. If they wanted to rent seperate rooms or a room with seperate beds no problem. If they were to tell the owner they were going to sleep with each other regardless then the owner does not have to rent to them since they insist upon breaking the owners rules. Why must a gay person aspouse to everyone in the world that they are gay. There wouldn't be a problem if they wouldn't have said they were gay and just rented seperate rooms.
There are several states which still have laws making homosexuality illegal, North and South Carolina are two of them. They are just not enforced by the politicians because they are afraid of the special interest groups and not interested in doing what is right.
A very good example of this is that there are several communities throughout North and South Carolina that in order to live in the housing development you not only must be a Christian but you must attend the communities church and if you don't you are required to move. This has been taken to court several times and each time has been upheld by the courts. One other note is that in the community in which I live their is also a hotel that is owned and run by the community. In order to stay in the hotel you must state that you are a Christian and are not gay. This hotels rules have also been upheld in court.
But that's not an Indian.
Black Bear, owner knew that could mean a several month sleep, and they just wanted to stay for a bear night.
Sumter ping.
She didn't say we do not rent to homosexual perverts.
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