The Christian owners of a hotel who refused a gay couple a double room acted unlawfully, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
Peter and Hazelmary Bull were breaking the law when they denied Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy a room at their hotel in Cornwall in September 2008.
Hall and Preddy, from Bristol, were seeking up to 5,000 pounds damages, claiming sexual orientation discrimination under the Equality Act, the Press Association reported.
At a hearing last month, the Bulls denied the claim, saying they have a long-standing policy of banning all unmarried couples both heterosexual and gay from sharing a bed at the Chymorvah Private Hotel in Marazion near Penzance.
Bull, 70, and his wife, 66, said their policy was based on their beliefs about marriage, not a hostility to sexual orientation.
Mrs Bull told the court: “We accept that the Bible is the holy living word of God and we endeavour to follow it as far as we are able.
“We have a kind of routine we go through with folk. It is never our intention to offend so we try to make it as gracious and as helpful as we can.”
Preddy, 38, said he and Hall, 46, had booked the hotel room over the phone and were not aware of the policy until they arrived and were told they would not be able to stay.
Judge Andrew Rutherford made his ruling in a written judgment at Bristol County Court as he awarded the gay couple 1,800 pounds each in damages.
“We live today in a parliamentary democracy. Our laws are made by the Queen in Parliament,” he said.
“It is inevitable that such laws will from time to time cut across deeply held beliefs of individuals and sections of society for they reflect the social attitudes and morals prevailing at the time that they are made.
“I am quite satisfied as to the genuineness of the defendants’ beliefs and it is, I have no doubt, one which others also hold,” he said.
“It is a very clear example of how social attitudes have changed over the years for it is not so very long ago that these beliefs of the defendants would have been those accepted as normal by society at large. Now it is the other way around.”
