Charlie - posted on 04/16/2011 ( 18 moms have responded )
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A British gay couple has triggered fresh debate over public displays of affection after claiming they were thrown out of a London pub for kissing.
As the Guardian reports, Jonathan Williams and James Bull said they were ejected from the John Snow in Broadwick Street pub in London's Soho after their kiss was deemed "obscene" by the woman claiming to be the landlady.
"We weren't being over the top; there wasn't anything that would be deemed unseemly," Williams, a financial journalist, is quoted as saying. Both men claim they were not indulging in a "huge display of affection" but were merely sharing what they describe as a "hands-above-the-table" kiss on the lips. "I'm not the kind of person to do that kind of thing in public," Williams added.
Officials for the John Snow pub and Samuel Smith's brewery, which owns the central London venue, have thus far not commented on the incident, the Associated Press is reporting. Though London's Soho area has a number of gay pubs and other alternative venues, the John Snow pub is not designated and such. Still, other pub owners have slammed allegations that Williams and Bull might have been treated differently because they are gay.
Daniel Griffiths, owner of the Miners Rest in Barnsley, said the couple's sexual preference had no impact on the pub's decision. "From a personal point of view, whether they were gay, whether they were lesbians or whether they were heterosexuals, I would still have thrown them out," Griffiths told the BBC. "We make the house rules and we stand by those house rules. If he doesn't like the house rules, don't use the pub."
Bull isn't so convinced. "I felt so belittled, and to be made to feel so dirty and cheap over something like that - it's just wrong," he told the Telegraph.
The incident has inspired the couple to launch a tongue-in-cheek liveblog, and hundreds of gay rights' advocates have launched a Facebook page to mobilize a three-hour "kiss-in" at the pub as a protest.
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Public displays of affection , do you think it is ever ok ?
Is it better or worse if it is a male / male relationship or female / female relationship or a male female relationship ?
do you not like it at all or are you not bothered by any of it ?
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I think a closed mouth kiss is fine...making out in public is not. I think it's trashy to act so overtly sexual in front of other people...for any gender type of couple.
Years ago before I was married and had babies I was out clubbing with friends and of course we were hammered and having a great time and my gf and I were just being silly and kissed on the lips....so what, it was harmless, not a make-out session...and we were kicked out for it. It was humiliating to be treated like a tramp when for one, you aren't one (not even close!) and two, you were just playing! Even if we weren't playing, still so what. It was a peck for pete's sake and it was in a night club, not the public library at story time!!