Pucker Up For Gay Kiss-In Tonight In London

Tonight there will be a gay kiss-in in London protesting at a pub that allegedly kicked out a kissing couple because they were gay.

On Wednesday the John Snow pub in Soho, the area where most of the gay pubs in London are situated, kicked out a couple of men for being “obscene.”

A man physically assaulted them by grabbing one of their ”coat lapels as he asked them to leave the pub, and fellow drinkers joined in the pair’s protestations of innocence.”

The men claim they were not being obscene and one said, “I’m not the kind of person to do that kind of thing in public.”

The question is: were they treated differently because it was two men and not a man and a woman?

We may never know, but gay rights supporters have decided this must be the case and are staging a kiss-in tonight and another one next Wednesday from 7pm to 10pm. They are encouraging people not to order anything from the pub but water, just to add further insult to injury.

People kiss in pubs all the time; this is not abnormal. However, as far as I know, landlords do have the right to kick people out. If they think people are being “obscene” then they can ask them to leave. I think it’s important not to use the fact that these men were gay as an excuse for bad behaviour. It could be likened to a woman who didn’t get a promotion and then blames it on sexism — maybe she just wasn’t as good as the competition.

Homophobia is not acceptable, but it’s important we don’t blame everything on that and look at each situation separately to see whatever other factors might be at play. We’ll never know what really happened because we weren’t there, but hopefully, if homophobia was the cause, this will be a good lesson for everybody.

Contact the author here: mack@morningquickie.com