(Sydney) An Australian hotel favoured by gays has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals, a report said on Monday. The management of the Peel Hotel in Melbourne said they had applied for and won exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to prevent insults and abuse being directed at their mainly gay patrons.

In particular, the hotel raised concerns about gatherings of large groups of heterosexual men and of groups of women out for so-called “hen nights”, said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The owner of the Peel Hotel in Melbourne says there has already been a backlash after the pub won the right to turn away heterosexual patrons.

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Owner Tom McFeely says there has been an increase in abusive homophobic phone calls to the Collingwood hotel since the decision became public. “The phone honestly hasn’t stopped ringing and that’s sad but it also in my head demonstrates the need for this type of thing, because there is still quite a bit of homophobia within the general community,” he said.

it ... demonstrates the need for this type of thing, because there is still quite a bit of homophobia within the general community

An Australian hotel popular with gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals and lesbians, officials and the owner said Monday.

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"The hotel predominantly markets itself towards homosexual males, towards gay men and we want to protect the integrity of the venue as well as continue to make the men feel comfortable," McFeely said. "When large numbers of heterosexuals or even lesbians are in the hotel that changes the atmosphere and many gay men can feel uncomfortable."

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Helen Szoke, the chief executive of the Victoria state government's Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, said the Peel Hotel's gay clientele had experienced harassment, hostility and violence. "(They) also have felt as though they've been like a zoo exhibit with big groups of women on hens' parties coming to the club," she said.

McFeely said his aim was not to ban all straight patrons and lesbians but to limit their numbers so gay men could freely express their sexuality. He said he expected a backlash from other patrons, but added: "I'm not worried about it because to be frank I don't really care what heterosexuals or lesbians think. "My main motivation is to protect my gay male customers and I realise heterosexuals and lesbians may be upset. but I don't care about that.

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"With the heterosexual males, if they identify themselves as that at the door, or indeed we question their behaviour in the venue and if they come across as being heterosexual, then we will simply ask them to leave if the behaviour is unappropriate."

Human rights group Liberty Victoria supported the decision, vice-president Michael Pearce said. "There are numerous places where heterosexual people can go," he said. "I think what (the tribunal) has said is that there aren't that many places where gay people can go and meet without the risk of being harassed or vilified, and that they are entitled to have their own spaces to do that in."

What's the point of even having anti-discrimination laws if businesses can just opt out of them?

The Peel Hotel in Melbourne won an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to prevent insults and abuse directed toward gays in its bars and nightclubs, owner Tom McFeely told AFP.

Tom McFeely, the hotel’s owner, who emigrated to Australia from Scotland 17 years ago because of homophobia, said the ruling was necessary to provide gay men with a non-threatening atmosphere. “We’ve always welcomed everyone at the Peel,” he said. “But when it got to the stage where a gay person could feel intimidated or unsafe at a gay venue, that’s when I felt I had to take action. If I can limit the number of heterosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance.”

Mr McFeely said he was not banning all straight people but wanted to have legal backing when he told unwelcome groups or individuals they should leave. He said women on hen nights, who had a tendency to “have a giggle at the poofs”, and men on stag nights, who could make the atmosphere threatening, were among the problems customers faced. He also wants the right to exclude lesbians, because the hotel was set up as a male venue.

Mr McFeely said lesbians had undressed in front of each other in the past, and gay male customers had complained that they had felt uncomfortable.

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Ten years ago, a heterosexual couple complained to equal opportunities chiefs that they were discriminated against at the Peel, when they were asked to leave for what Mr McFeely described as “almost having sex”. But he said that case had not influenced his decision to seek the latest ruling.

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Helen Szoke, the head of the commission, said the hotel’s gay clientele had experienced harassment and violence. “[They] have felt as though they’ve been like a zoo exhibit,” she said.

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At the Vine, a mainstream pub on the same street as the Peel Hotel, Jackie Milesi, the landlady, backed Mr McFeely’s stand. “A lot of people go into his venue and create problems, and I don’t think it’s right,” she said. “The gay people come to our place for lunch and we’re very comfortable with that. They have a right to their privacy.”

A gay bar promoted as a "truly manly meat market'' is facing a human rights complaint for barring women from discovering the pleasures inside the establishment.

Audrey Vachon, a Quebec college student, launched the discrimination complaint against the bar Le Stud, described in promotional material as a haven for bears, chasers and sadomasochistic fetishists. The bar's slogan is "a men's bar where men love men.''

Vachon, 20, was thrown out of the bar in Montreal's gay village on a recent quiet Tuesday afternoon when she sat down for a beer with her father, Gilles Vachon. A bar staffer told Vachon's father that women were not allowed in the bar -- not even on the front patio where the Vachons had sat down.

"On the spot I didn't believe it, I thought it was a bad joke,'' Audrey Vachon said Wednesday in an interview. "I didn't say a word until I'd left. I was too shocked. I was embarrassed, I was humiliated, I felt guilty that I'd even gone there, like I'd done something wrong.''

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Le Stud owner Michel Gadoury says women have been banned most nights since the bar opened 11 years ago. He says he doesn't understand the fuss.

"We're not discriminating, women have the right to come on certain days,'' Gadoury told one media outlet. "It's a choice, it's a choice that my clients make, that they ask me to make, and we're respecting them.''

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Peter Sergakis, the owner of a bar in the gay village and the head of a provincial association of bars, says Le Stud has to get with the times and allow customers to make their own choices. "This should not be happening, it's like going back 20 years ago when the gays were intimidated in straight bars,'' Sergakis said. "I'm sure the owner is going to change the habits. This is not acceptable in 2007.''

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But Hans Janiak of Quebec's gay chamber of commerce pointed out other businesses ban people based on gender to help customers feel comfortable. He pointed to women's gyms that refuse men, strip bars that ban women and dance bars that only allow male-female couples.

"It's not a phenomenon unique to the gay and lesbian community,'' Janiak said. "But it's usually not based on law, but a sort of gentlemen's agreement.''

And Plante added that he still feels uncomfortable holding hands or kissing his partner in some mainstream bars and restaurants. "(Gay) saunas don't exactly welcome women, even lesbians,'' Plante said. "But sometimes this all just comes down to common sense, doesn't it.''

But a couple accused the women of gay bashing and said they have a right to a place of their own.

Various queer communities across Canada have struggled with the issue of integration/assimilation. When does allowing heterosexuals into gay clubs become a problem? How appropriate is it, for instance, when a gay man in a gay club approaches another man only to be told, "I'm straight"? When there are long lines to get into the latest gay hotspot and those of us standing patiently in line see any number of heterosexual couples being allowed in while we continue to wait for access into what is, after all, our bar, are we to accept that because the straights have as much right to be there as we do? At what point do we lose our culture and risk further assimilation by dominant culture?

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It was not Ms. Vachon who was disrespected in this situation, despite her hurt feelings; it is her sense of entitlement which disrespects the patrons of Le Stud.