"All venues should focus on stamping out discrimination" - Isle of Pride

Isle of Pride has spoken out, following a controversial post from a local bar.

It comes as 'Guys and Dolls' in Douglas issued a statement to explain its 'Public Displays of Affection (PDA) policy'.

It read: "Any further attempts to deliberately provoke it (the policy) will be regarded as antisocial behavior aimed directly to disrupt our straight clientele, many of whom have family members who are from LGBT+ groups."

The post has since sparked widespread criticism, with hundreds of comments and some claiming it came across as discriminatory.

Now, Isle of Pride has taken to social media - stating it stands for the ability for anyone to be their own authentic self and be able to express gender and sexuality in a way they are comfortable with.

The charity's post reads:

"Recent Facebook comments from a local bar have demonstrated that while we may have come a long way on the journey to equality, there is still more work to do. 

The ability to hold hands and kiss your partner in public is not restricted in law nor to being a specific gender or sexual orientation.

Isle of Pride representative, Kara Varetto, who themselves have been asked to stop kissing their girlfriend, said, "I am disappointed to see a local bar persisting with the suggestion that seeing same sex couples kissing in public is offensive to heterosexual clientele. All venues should focus on stamping out discrimination in all its forms, and Isle of Pride are working on an awareness and training programme to support venues that we hope will be available towards the end of this year."

We recognise most island venues understand their commitments to ending all forms of discrimination on the Isle of Man through our collective work on the road to equality.  

Isle of Pride would encourage any businesses wishing to improve their awareness and knowledge of equality and diversity through training to get in touch at info@isleofpride.com."