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Bed and Breakfast Owner goes to court over website hinting rejection of homosexual guests

A Bed and Breakfast owner was taken to court due to a website suggesting that homosexual guests will be rejected. | Pixabay/AmberAvalona

A bed and breakfast owner in Scotland has been taken to court due to the language on his website suggesting that he would not provide rooms for homosexual guests.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission went to court to seek an interim interdict to force Tom Forrest, owner of Cromasaig B&B in Kinlochewe, to remove comments and images from his business website, according to Press and Journal.

The website reportedly contains the phrase "family and heterosexual friendly," as well as a photo depicting "man + woman = marriage." The commission contended that Forrester was in violation of the U.K. Equality Act.

A brief private hearing was held at Inverness Sheriff Court on Friday, and Forrest agreed to remove the comments and images from his website as the case proceeds.

"We are pleased that Cromasaig Bed and Breakfast has agreed to remove these phrases from their website, until such time as the court makes an order in relation to the matter," a commission spokesperson said.

"We asked Cromasaig to remove them but they were not willing to do so and so we took this legal action. We now await the court's decision after a full hearing in due course," the spokesperson added.

Cromasaig made headlines in 2004 when Forrest refused a man's request for a double room because he was involved in a homosexual relationship. He said that "two gents" will only be allowed to book rooms with separate beds because he deemed homosexual relationships as "unnatural" and a "sexual deviation."

Stephen Nock, the man who tried to book the room, was hoping to stay at Forrester's guest house with his partner during a four-day walking holiday in the Highlands.

Following the incident, gay groups contacted by Nock bombarded Forrest with e-mails to complain about his policy. Cromasaig was stripped of its recommended status and removed from the records of Scotland's tourist authority, VisitScotland.

In 2010, Forrester told reporters that his policies are not based on religion, but on nature itself.

"I do not approve of the homosexual act and any act of intercourse should be between a man and a woman. It's nothing to do with the Bible; it's to do with nature," he said.