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In order to reduce pilfering, some hotels have begun attaching RFID chips to their towels and linens.
The radio-frequency identification chips designed by Linen Technology Tracking can be put in towels, sheets and bathrobes to keep track of stock and, more importantly, to ensure their return when light-fingered guests forget their manners. The market for such items sounds well developed. CNN quoted William Serbin of Linen Technology Tracking saying, "Any given month, [hotels] can lose 5 to 20 percent of towels, sheets and robes." And the economies to be made from the tags, which will work through 300 washes, also sound rather impressive.
"It seems to me that what we are doing is producing a tyrannous new morality that is every bit as oppressive as the old. The way to [handle this] is not to ban them, not to fine them. It is for them simply to put up what seems to me to be a quite proper notice in a small privately run hotel which says we are Christians and this is what we believe. Otherwise, we are as I said, we are producing a new tyranny." - Openly gay British historian, atheist, and television commentator David Starkey, speaking against the recent fining of Christian bed-and-breakfast owners because they wouldn't rent to gays.
Starkey words are being repeated today on American Christianist sites, where he is being described as a "gay activist."
Two Illinois bed and breakfast hotels have turned away a gay couple's request to hold their civil unions ceremony, with one lodging manager emailing the couple to tell them to repent.
"We will never host same-sex civil unions. We will never host same-sex weddings even if they become legal in Illinois," Timber Creek operators told [Todd] Wathen in an e-mail. “We believe homosexuality is wrong and unnatural based on what the Bible says about it. If that is discrimination, I guess we unfortunately discriminate." When informed of Illinois's new civil unions law, Jim Walder of Timber Creek replied, “The Bible does not state opinions, but facts. It contains the highest laws pertinent to man. It trumps Illinois law, United States law, and global law should there ever be any.” Walder later sent an unsolicited e-mail of Bible passages to Wathen. He wrote, “Hi Todd, I know you may not want to hear this, but I thought I would send along a couple of verses in Romans 1 detailing how the Creator of the Universe looks at the gay lifestyle. It’s not to late to change your behavior.”The couple has filed complaints with the state, which bans lodging discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In response, David Smith of the (SPLC-certified hate group) Illinois Family Institute has issued a bizarre demand that Gov. Pat Quinn and President Obama apologize for their support of LGBT rights. According to Smith, the owners of Timber Creek have received "poisonous, hate-filled letters and phone calls from leftists who demand that we accept their life choices." Timber Creek's website presently notes that it is an "upscale Christian" business.
After a British court fined the owners of a bed-and-breakfast for turning away gay couples, attention has turned to gay hotels and guesthouses who may similarly discourage the patronage of heterosexuals.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is examining whether "gay-only" guesthouses breach new laws designed to prevent people being treated unfairly in the provision of goods or services. Last month, Christian owners of a guesthouse in Cornwall became the first to be found guilty of discrimination under equality laws after they refused to let a homosexual couple stay in a double room, in a legal action supported by the EHRC. Now, the watchdog says it must establish an "objective balance" by considering if gays-only accommodation also defies the legislation. Its lawyers are now investigating the issue and the EHRC says it has not ruled out taking legal action against "gay-only" hotels if they are deemed to be discriminating against heterosexuals.Owners of gay guesthouses quoted in the above-linked story say they would likely go out of business if forced to abandon their "exclusively gay" policies. No member of the public has yet to file a complaint against any of the gay businesses.
This weekend the BBC's Big Picture covered the recent decision against the British hoteliers who had refused to rent rooms to gay couples. Good discussion here.
In what is being hailed as a landmark decision, a British judge has ruled that the Christian owners of a seaside bed and breakfast broke the law when they denied lodging to a gay couple.
Peter and Hazelmary Bull did not allow civil partners Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy to use a double room in their Cornwall B&B because it would be "an affront to their faith". However, a judge at Bristol County Court said the couple were breaking the law by denying the men a room. Mr Hall and Mr Preddy were each awarded £1,800 in damages. The couple said they were extremely happy with the outcome of the case. "When we booked this hotel we just wanted to do something that thousands of other couples do every weekend - take a relaxing weekend break away."The hotel's owners say that even unmarried straight couples have been denied rooms in the past.
UPDATE: Porno Pete is hoping to align with the homocons in protesting the ruling.
