Couple on vacation in Italy turned away from guest house for being gay

Couple on vacation in Italy turned away from guest house for being gay
Image: Photo: Norbert Nagel / Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 3.0.

A GAY couple in Italy have been denied reservations at a guest house because of their sexuality.

The Naples couple, planning a vacation to the coastal town of Santa Maria, contacted the guest house owner with their booking request, according to Gay Times.

The owner replied, “Thank you for your booking. This is the first year we are renting [the guest house], apologies for seeming a caveman, but we do not accept gays or pets.”

The couple have referred the incident to Arcigay Napoli, an Italian LGBTI rights advocacy group.

“After all this time, I refuse to be treated as if there was something wrong with me,” said one of the men.

“It is not fair. I was not just upset because of what happened to us, I thought about the thousands of youths who could be subjected to the same treatment. It is a thought that hurt me too much.”

He said he had been out as gay for 12 years, and he and his partner had been together for seven.

Arcigay Napoli has called the incident “a grave act of discrimination and homophobia” and said they plan to have the guest house removed from booking websites.

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2 responses to “Couple on vacation in Italy turned away from guest house for being gay”

  1. Appalling discrimination, rightly condemned. The risk for tourism authorities is that boycotts etc might ensue. On a national scale, this is the risk Australia is creating for itself because our Parliament continues to drag the chain on marriage equality – the Qantas CEO can only do and say so much to assure international customers that we’re okay before the international community says it’s still not enough.

    • We are not the only ones that ban marriage equality Dave! Northern Ireland, China, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Chile, India, Indonesia and East-Timor (the countries we openly trade with) as well as right here in Australia still do not allow marriage equality – we are not the only ones remember! Only 30/200 countries allow gay marriage that is only a measely 15% of the world only remember! I actually support marriage equality, but it will be at least 10 years before it is allowed right here within Australia. The NT and WA (both governed by Labor) still In 2017 do not even have civil unions provided!