Equality for all - as long as they are all the same as me

Gay couple refused a room at B&B, wins court case against owners of B&B.
Source: BBC

Commenters have lamented that the owners could not chose who they allowed into their home. The point they are completely missing is that when the owners made the choice to operate a B&B from their house it stopped being their home and became the premises of a business.

If you refuse some friends of friends the use of your spare room because you don't want homosexuals in your home, that is you acting on your personal beliefs. But as a business, a legal entity, they are offering up a service to paying customers and so they have to abide by anti-discrimination laws.

The Christian Institute, who funded the B&B owners defense, said: "This ruling is further evidence that equality laws are being used as a sword rather than a shield. [...] Christians are being sidelined." How can they not see that in a society of equals, everyone's rights are of equal importance? Person A's right to follow whichever religion they chose does not supercede Person B's right to be treated the same as someone of a different sexual orientation.

Look at it this way. The couple were denied a room because the owners did not approve of people that are homosexual. What if you replace the word "homosexual" with "Islamic"? Or "of African descent"? Racism, religious intolerance, homophobia. They all amount to the same thing. Someone's beliefs prejudices them against a group of people. It doesn't matter whether or not those beliefs originate from  a book someone considers holy or not. It is not acceptable to treat anyone as a second class citizen.

On a personal level it is up to our own conscience how we treat others. On a business level the law tells us we are all equal and should be treated as such. Your right to believe that homosexuals / dark-skinned people / religious people are evil / are stupid / smell bad is not impinged by these laws. It only curtails you from actively barring groups of people from your shop / hotel / restaurant.

To my mind, when rights and beliefs clash, the rights of a person not to be discriminated against will always outrank another person's right to discriminate. Cases like this shows that, unfortunately, we are not yet tolerant enough to go without laws protecting them from us.

2010 & 2011

It is very easy to focus on the negative rather than the positive. I know I am far too good at it. So in the spirit of positivity I am going to look not at things I didn't do in 2010, but instead focus on the things I DID do.

Singing

I've been saying for years that I would like to be able to sing. Not for any particular reason, just to know that I could open my mouth and feel confident that what comes out won't send dogs fleeing for cover. I plucked up my courage and sent an enquiry to a local music school and was allocated a tutor. It has been amazing fun for me and I come out of each and every lesson with a glow of happiness.

Yes, I could progress better and faster if I was more disciplined about practicing between lessons, but you know what? I don't care. I am enjoying the lessons themselves tremendously and it's not like I have a concert looming in my future. I am doing this purely for me. It will take the time it takes and I will have a great time throughout the journey.

Style

Another thing I've been wanting to do for the longest time is to get "my colours done". You know, having one of those sessions where someone trained tells you what colours you look best in. So off I went. Half a day spent with a lovely consultant discussing not only colours, but styles as well. What to think about with accessories, belt or no belt, skirt lengths, coat shapes.

I walked out of there with a wallet of colour swatches as well as a booklet of what styles and shapes are the best for me. But the brilliant thing is that most of the time I don't even have to look at them. Caroline explained (and showed) why I want to make certain choices, which means that I can now look at clothes and most of the time just know whether the style will do what I want it to. Same with colours. Dark over light, muted over bright, warm over cold. Easy!

Volunteering

I've signed up as a volunteer for the London 2012 Olympics. I think they have handled some of it appallingly (For instance sending letters to residents asking them not to use their cars during the Olympics. Seriously - you didn't consider that people will still need to get to work?), but with it being just around the corner it could be fun to be involved.

They are calling people to interviews over the next few months, so I may not be offered a spot - but I think it could be an experience if I do. You can put down 3 areas you'd prefer to help out in and went for things to do with media, helping out in the Olympic village and something else along those lines. There were 11 areas, so there were more that I thought sounded interesting, but also some that I would not go for. Like working in the ticket office or with catering or recycling. Not my skillset at all and also not something I'd get any enjoyment out of doing. If I were to get offered something like that I would have to turn it down.

Skiing

We booked our 2011 ski holiday. We're going to Cervinia for I's birthday and we are both looking forward to it a lot. Last year we didn't get around to going for various reasons, so I am very pleased we got it booked in.

My problem is that I have to book trips at least 2-3 months in advance. That early on I'll be all excited and think it'll be great fun. Too close to the departure date and I'll get bogged down in the horror that is travelling. You know, trekking to the airport, queuing at the airport, sitting at the airport, sitting on the plane, queuing at another airport, sitting on a coach. Add in 2 people with stomach problems that are exacerbated by travelling and you have a recipe for "why don't we take time off and just chill at home". So very, very pleased we got that booked before the cold feet set in.

The future

We have talked a lot about the future this year. Not dream talk "if we didn't have to work, we could" or vague "sometime it'd be nice to" talk, but proper discussions about what we want out of life. Where do we want to live, what do we want to prioritise?

I am not entirely happy living in the suburbs, to my mind you have all the drawbacks both of city-life and country-living, but none of the upsides. But I am not blind to the many practical reasons why so many people live there. We're still throwing around some different ideas about what exactly we'd prefer to do, but in the meantime we are hard at work paying off extra chunks on our mortgage. The thinking being that when the time comes we will (hopefully) have more equity in our house which is something that gives us more options. At the moment we've set a deadline of 2012 for making a decision and starting down whatever path we chose to take.

Of course that is year away and in the current climate much can change in a year. I's work is probably facing redundancies, though the staff don't know yet how many or exactly where (very big place) - so that's kind of a big question mark for this year and possibly the next.

2011

Looking forward I don't have any major goals for this year.

I'm going to give the whole going to the gym thing another try for a couple of months, if it still doesn't work out then I'll cancel the membership. No point in paying for something you don't use, no matter how good it would be for you.

More singing of course.

More writing. I got out of the swing with it for the last few months last year, but I do want to keep at it - so I'll try to keep that up.

And of course there will be a fair bit of pondering of what I really want to do as our self-imposed deadline looms closer.