Gay couple say they were kicked out of pub for kissing
A gay couple have said that they were told to leave a pub after they kissed, because the landlord said the behaviour was “revolting”.
PinkNews reader Darren Barnett and his boyfriend Dylan Morris were in the St Levan Inn, Plymouth celebrating Morris’ birthday, and that they shared a peck on the lips, but that pub landlord Paul Bodenham told them not to kiss again or they would have to leave.
Pub owner Ann Lawrence denied that the management are homophobic, saying she was “bloody fuming” about it, and calling Morris and Barnett “two stupid people”, who were “snogging” in the pub.
Barnett told PinkNews: “I just felt shocked and taken aback by what he was saying. The fact he called our actions ‘revolting’ was just out of order. All I did was give my boyfriend a simple peck on the lips; it was his birthday. I can’t believe it had been made such a big deal out of.
“I have quite a lot of strong ties to the gay community and I’ve heard stories from my friends suffering from this kind of discrimination. It had never happened to be before until now. It’s quite sad that we still suffer from this kind of thing in 2015.
“I certainly don’t be putting any more money in his till, nor will my boyfriend or his family.”
He said he had not heard anything more from the landlord, but that he had reported the incident to Plymouth City Council.
Ann Lawrence, the pub’s owner told PinkNews that she was “bloody fuming about [the incident]”.
She said: “It was two stupid people who were snogging each other at the bar – they were told to leave… no they weren’t told to leave, they were told if they continued they would have to go outside.
“All this bloody gay stuff – nobody would have even known they were gay if they hadn’t started snogging each other – it’s all so stupid… The darts team on a Saturday night is mostly lesbians.”
Bodenham, who has been the pub landlord for over three decades, was not available for comment, but denied to the Plymouth Herald that he is not homophobic. He also said he didn’t tell them to leave, but that they were warned that they would have to go outside if they didn’t stop kissing.
He claims the couple were French kissing, and that he would have said the same thing to a straight couple.
