A community of gay men are taking legal action against a pub that “banned gay men for questioning LGBTQ+ orthodoxy”.
The HumanGayMale (HGM) group, which boasts more than 1,200 members globally, is preparing to take the Lion & Lobster pub to court, due to its decision to ban “any groups promoting political ideologies or views”.
The HGM was organising a meeting at the pub to discuss the group not subscribing to gender identity ideology – the belief that you can change sex.
It had already been successful at previous meetings, with HGM’s managing director, James Roberts, saying that “around 40 people” turned up to a previous event.
Mr Roberts said: “Gay men are only about three per cent of the population, so it always looks like there are only women talking about this.
“But I knew there were lots of gay men out there who believed in reality. It was just a question of reaching them.”
It is understood that the Lion & Lobster pub announced their exclusion of those with gender-critical views just hours before the meeting was due to take place.
Mr Roberts believes the pub was given a tip-off before the event and argued that they were discriminated against, not for their political beliefs but for a belief in science, as well as their sexual orientation.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
The Lion & Lobster pub is facing legal action
|
GOOGLE MAPS
He said: “I was shocked but not surprised when the pub cancelled. But if it’s going to happen anywhere, it’s going to be in Brighton.”
When Mr Roberts could not reach the manager by phone, he went to the pub, hoping to resolve his issue face-to-face.
He explained: “I went into the pub thinking that once I explained what had happened with the Supreme Court ruling, the pub would just say: ‘Well, you’re here now and no one is protesting, so you might as well have the room.’
“But the manager said, ‘No, the booking is cancelled’. I asked if we could just come to the bar and get a drink, and she said no, they wouldn’t be serving us at all.
“A couple of guys from HGM had turned up by this point, and they asked if they could simply get a drink. One of them had been in the pub only days earlier. She said no. So the pub had been happy to serve him when they didn’t know he held gender-critical views, but not [afterwards].
“I said: ‘I don’t want to have to do this, but you’ve left me with no choice, and I’m going to have to take you to court.'”
The Lion & Lobster pub said they always welcomed and promoted diversity but are always reluctant to accept bookings from any groups promoting partisan political ideologies or views.
A spokesman for the pub told The Telegraph: “When we accepted the booking, we were unaware that it was anything other than a social gathering.”
HGM released a statement about the situation online
|
The pub cited posts made on X by HGM, which stated that any activists infiltrating the meeting to cause trouble would be physically ejected, and the police would be called.
The spokesman continued: “We acted when we became aware of the adversarial/political nature of the event, with its associated threats of physical violence.”
Mr Roberts responded: “The event was neither political nor adversarial. I had been made aware of a social media post that was calling for people to infiltrate our event to do things such as take photos of attendees.
“I didn’t think any such activists would actually turn up, but I wanted them to know that we were aware they were talking about us and to discourage them from trying to come along and cause trouble.
“If the pub had genuine concerns about this, they could’ve raised them with me. But they didn’t. They certainly didn’t cite any of this in their email, or in the conversation with the manager. They just cancelled the booking based on the say-so of the trans rights activists.”