Greencoat Pub in Homophobic Shame.

It was all set to be a nice cozy social evening after an annual general meeting,  but it rapidly turned very sour and the ugly face of homophobia rose once again.

The Greencoat Boy is a pub in London's Westminster,  there had been a booking from a gay group,  the Labour LGBT group wanted to have a little social gathering there after their meeting.    However,   the pub's duty manager  refused to serve them,  telling them if he'd known they were a gay group the booking would never have been accepted.

Under the  Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007 law in the UK,  it's  unlawful for a person providing goods, facilities or services,  including  pubs and hotels,  to discriminate against someone because of their sexuality.  The Greencoat Boy was clearly in breach of this law and the Police have been notified.

James Asser,  one of the Labour LGBT group said to the BBC: "Everyone involved was shocked and outraged. This attitude is totally unacceptable in this day and age. What century are we living in here?    When you encounter prejudice you have to stand up and be counted - at the very least we expect an apology.    We also want a demonstration that the pub chain takes this very seriously and will make sure it never happens again."

The managers attitude sparked a social media outrage,  leading MP's to condemn the pubs stance,  one even calling for a boycott of all the pub's and bars in the parent companies chain.

Punch Taverns,  which is the company that own the pub - have admitted that the customers were denied service,  but took their sweet time before they issued an apology.    "Punch Taverns seeks to provide welcoming venues to everyone. We are shocked and saddened that a group of our guests did not experience this and would like to apologise,    We would however like to stress that this is an isolated incident and is not representative of our commitment to diversity.    We are currently conducting a full investigation of the incident and will report back to the Labour LGBT group with our findings."  said a spokesman.

However an apology may not quite be enough,  there is growing support for a 'gay boycott' of all Punch Taverns throughout the UK,  with possible demonstrations outside The Greencoat Boy.    Legal action is also being considered.

Jason Shaw

Jason Shaw is GayAgenda.com's UK Correspondent

he also writes the  daily blog The Seafront Diaries.

© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw