WOMAN BOUNCED FROM MONTREAL GAY BAR

[+ BOZO T CLOWN]

ONE WONDERS IF HER APPEAL IS UPHELD, WHAT THE REPRECUSSIONS MAY BE:

 

FROM TODAY'S TORONTO STAR:

 

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/219794

 

Woman bounced from Montreal gay bar

TheStar.com - Canada - Woman bounced from Montreal gay bar

 

University student complains to Quebec human rights tribunal

 

May 31, 2007

Sean Gordon

QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF

 

MONTREAL–University student Audrey Vachon sat down at a city patio for a late afternoon drink with her dad last week. What happened next prompted a complaint to Quebec's human rights tribunal.

 

The patio belongs to Le Stud, a self-styled "hard, manly and virile" leather bar on the fringes of Montreal's Gay Village.

 

Audrey's father, Gilles Vachon, said a server sidled over and said "This establishment is for men only. Please leave."

 

Audrey Vachon, 20, said she has never felt singled out the way she was on that day."I've frequented other places in the Village ... and it's the first time I've ever come up against this kind of closed-mindedness. In fact, it's the first time I've ever felt discriminated against."

 

Her expulsion has provoked a storm of criticism of Le Stud's owner, who said it is house policy to admit only men – other than on Ladies Night on Wednesdays.

 

Gaycities.com gives Le Stud five stars and describes it as "bears and queens, leather and jeans."

 

MontrealPlus.ca explains its narrow dance floor "encourages friskiness. Also, the many televisions continuously display porn flicks."

 

Gadoury owns several other establishments in the Gay Village, which admit women, he said.

 

Montreal's Gay Chamber of Commerce and Société de développement commercial du Village called on Le Stud to "respect the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms," which bans discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.

 

Société executive director Bernard Plante said heterosexuals should understand why gays might prefer to be with each other: "I dream of the day where I will be able to walk into a restaurant with my partner holding his hand and maybe giving him a kiss. That's still not always possible in this day and age."

 

That's not an appeal that holds much weight for Gilles Vachon.

 

"Here we are in a liberal country confronted by people who have used the charter of rights to assert their rights against discrimination, and who are now discriminating against others.

 

"I would never presume to discriminate against a gay person. Why should this be allowed to happen to my daughter?" asked Vachon. "I was angry when this happened. We should probably have stayed and forced them to call the police to remove us."

 

[image]http://www.computer-guru.com/images/BOZO.GIF[/image]

******BOZO T. CLOWN*****

[Luv2play]

This is so much bullshit. There are lesbian establishments in Montreal (and elsewhere) where men are specifically excluded. It's even on their Internet sites "no men" "lesbians only". I could provide specific examples, for instance a lesbian B&B run by a former radio personality on Radio-Canada in Montreal. She specifically excludes men from her establishment. So what else is new? x(

[Guest zipperzone]

>This is so much bullshit. There are lesbian establishments in

>Montreal (and elsewhere) where men are specifically excluded.

>It's even on their Internet sites "no men" "lesbians only". I

>could provide specific examples, for instance a lesbian B&B

>run by a former radio personality on Radio-Canada in Montreal.

>She specifically excludes men from her establishment. So what

>else is new? x(

 

Yes, we all know it happens but the question is "Is it legal?"

The outcome will be interesting.

[Luv2play]

The proverbial s**t has hit the fan now as a gay activist has launched a complaint against a chain of women's fitness clubs which excludes men. He applied for a membership after the Stud incident and was told he could not become a member because he was a man. He is therefore proceeding with a complaint to the Human Rights Commission. This should be very interesting.

 

There are all sorts of women's establishments that exclude men, probably more than there are men's clubs these days as many of the latter have opened their doors to women because of pressure from women's groups. Many of the women's clubs are more recent establishments which have opened at the same time as women were winning their places in clubs that had previously been restricted to men such as golf clubs and social clubs.

 

My own opinion is that this woman was just a troublemaker and she has now stirred up a hornet's nest. There are several outdoor terraces within a block or two of Le Stud where the clientele is mixed straight and gay and she would have been welcome there. Instead she chose a place that is ultra masculine.

 

I feel there should be some give and take in these situations and have myself inadvertently walked into a lesbian nightclub where I realized my presence was not appreciated and I quickly left. Of course the fact that there were no men there made my decision relatively painless! :7

[+ BOZO T CLOWN]

details on the previous post:

 

[link]http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=b01a603a-ce18-4cea-9ffe-fd66b819cae1&k=36708[/link]

 

[image]http://www.computer-guru.com/images/BOZO.GIF[/image]

******BOZO T CLOWN******

 

 

B :+ Z :+

[Guest zipperzone]

>The proverbial s**t has hit the fan now as a gay activist has

>launched a complaint against a chain of women's fitness clubs

>which excludes men. He applied for a membership after the Stud

>incident and was told he could not become a member because he

>was a man. He is therefore proceeding with a complaint to the

>Human Rights Commission. This should be very interesting.

 

The same thing happened in BC last year. Guy refused membership to woman's fitness, he complained to HRC - guess what? HE LOST. The reason being, the HRC felt there were plenty of men's gyms in the same area that he could join and therefor his refused membership did not effectively prevent him from using a fitness facility - go figure!

[Luv2play]

Based on the BC case, this woman in Quebec will lose too as there were other alternatives that she could have chosen within an easy walk. But there was an interesting interview on CBC today with the owner of a gay hotel in Australia and a member of the human rights commission there. As the owner explained, he decided to limit, not exclude, the numbers of straights and lesbians visiting his bar when the numbers were such as to threaten the safety and well being of his gay clientele.

 

As he explained, when gays appear in straight establishments and express affection for each other through physical gestures such as hand holding and kissing, straights are repelled and react viscerally. He understands that and his gay bar in a gay hotel is an oasis to provide a supportive environment for gays to engage in exactly this sort of behaviour without the opprobrium of a straight audience.

 

The commissioner explained that their decision to allow this limitation was a time limited exception to their anti-discrimination legislation, recognizing the validity of these concerns of gay men. Evidently the decision will stand until conditions change when gays are equally able to do the sorts of things that straights take for granted in public, namely giving each other expressions of affection without fear of adverse reactions.

 

Here in Montreal, gays are able to express themselves in the Gay Village both indoors and out without attracting negative feedback. But that is not the case in the rest of the city and especially in the rest of the province of Quebec. In small towns the situation of gays hasn't improved much if at all despite the legalization of gay marriage. Just try to hold your boyfriend's hand in a small town and see what happens!

 

The separatist party which was led by an openly gay man recently went down to their worst defeat in a general election since their inception as a party largely as a result of the population outside of Montreal, which heretofore supported the separatist party, abandoning them in droves. The rural voters could not identify with a hip, cute gay man as a potentail leader of their province. Conservatism runs deep in rural Quebec, as elsewhere.

 

As I said previously, this woman was just looking to stir up trouble and she has succceded. I just hope the human rights commission takes a sensible view of the situation and allows the kind of flexibility the Australians have decided for themselves.

[+ Lucky]

A woman's place is in the home.