Editorial Bear

"That," the cry goes, "is Political Correctness gone MAD!"

Occasionally the 'mad' bit is drawn out and sounds something like "maaaaad" or a very bad sheep impression.

Anyway. Despite being uttered many millions of times in recent years, it appears Political Correctness has actually gone totally bonkers down in sunny Australia.

The Peel Hotel, which isn't actually a hotel (trade descriptions, anybody?) has just managed to legally ban heterosexual and lesbian patrons.

The Peel is a gay bar, just to clarify. It's one of Sydney's hottest spots for gay men and owner Tom McFeely wants it to stay that way.

"When large numbers of heterosexuals are in my hotel, many gay men feel uncomfortable."

McFeely has managed to get his bigotry ratified by a Civil Tribunal, which supports his right to ban customers based on their sexuality. Unless you're gay, you can't play. You'll have to visit one of Sydney's other drinking establishments (for whom I have coined the expression "Not Gay" bars.)

This decision annoys me. It takes any pretense of equality and chucks it out the window. It's legally binding proof that there's one rule for some and another for the rest of us.

Imagine if the situation was reversed? If a bar in Sydney (of which there are many) refused service to gay men. In rugged, macho Australia, I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers.

The result would be uproar. Marches. Banners. Newspaper headlines. Bigotry and homophobia would be the overused mots du jour. In modern society, it would be completely unacceptable to ban people from bars because of the gender they choose to sleep with.

Yet this is exactly what's happening here. The only reason the Civil Tribunal has passed this ridiculous law is because they've bought into the Politically Correct illusion that bigotry and intolerance don't go both ways.

Customers are being excluded based on their sexuality. That's the sort of ruling gay pride movements have spent the last forty years trying to abolish. Ironically, they're all for intolerance and discrimination if it works in their favour.

I'm sure I don't need to point out that this Civil Tribunal breaches Australian law. The question is, are we all too Politically Correct to say anything about it?

Read about the madness here.