Contrasting equalities

I attended the Friday morning service of Holy Communion at St George’s Cathedral Cape Town today. It was a beautiful peaceful reflective space, with young students visiting from two USA universities filling out the usual smallish crowd of worshipers. Archbishop Desmond Tutu presided as is usual on Friday mornings when he’s in Cape Town, helped by the Dean, Michael Weeder. Included in the prayers this morning were the LGBT community of America as they await the USA supreme court ruling on same sex marriage. Archbishop Tutu has long campaigned for equality and makes his points both on the world stage and quietly as a priest during the Friday dawn mass over which he presides. The Dean is also a supporter of equality, and it was he who offered the prayers today, following his sermon on Sunday which referred to the current issues in the Anglican Church over LGBT equality. I’m shamelessly including this photo of me with him as he’s one of my ultimate heroes. Thank you for the photo and the conversation, father Desmond:-)

Contrast this with the awful treatment two of our friends received at the hands of staff at the Polo Lounge in Glasgow recently. Nathan and Robert are both disabled, and it was this that was the cause of their troubles at the hands of the staff at this establishment, owned and run by Stephan King’s G1 entertainment company. Whilst Nathan was physically carried out of the club by a bouncer, Robert was left crawling about on the floor after having been refused entry due to his being disabled. Two police vans had been summoned by staff.  You can read more about the incident here. A bit of a faux-pas for the meatheads on the Polo door as Nathan and Robert are probably two of the most visible and well connected members of the Scottish LGBT community. Nathan works for the Equality Network in fact. They are now considering action against the G1 group under the Equalities Act for discrimination on the grounds of disability. Good luck to them, and remember their story if you’re thinking of visiting the Polo for some of their usual indifferent service and overpriced drinks… Tweet them and tell them what you think about their discrimination (note to owners, it is more than possible to have a ramp up the steps in front of what used to be Cafe Moda which links through to the Polo…and toilets shouldn’t be a problem either…as I remember)

South Africa legislated for equality in its post Apartheid constitution. Scotland and the rest of the UK are following. Let’s hope G1 and the Polo stop dragging their knuckles across the ground and wake up to this….its called progress and social justice…

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