The Daily Background

Apparently the Affordable Suites Hotel has a discriminatory policy of not serving gay customers:

A gay couple looking to rent a hotel room say they were turned away because of their sexuality.

“She wasn’t discreet about it,” said Jason Pickel, referring to a hotel employee. “She was not apologetic. She just said, ‘We do not rent to gay people.’”

For the past two and a half years, Pickel and Darren Black Bear have been in a committed relationship. During a search for a temporary home, the couple says it went to Affordable Suites of America, a long-term stay hotel located on Gion Street in Sumter.

“We were inquiring about the price, deposits, extra person fee, and she asked who the room was going to be for, and I said for my partner and I,” Pickel said. “She said, ‘Oh we don’t rent to multiple people of the same sex.’ I said, so you don’t rent to gay couples? She said, ‘No, we don’t rent to gay people at all.’”

As John Aravosis writes, “This is why we need civil rights laws. It is legal at the federal level, and in most states, to turn away gay couples from hotels simply because they are gay. That’s wrong.” He’s absolutely right.

There’s no difference between this type of thing and lunch counters in the 1950s that wouldn’t serve African Americans, or any kind of place that would ever utter the excuse “we don’t serve your kind here.” You can contact Affordable Suites here and urge them to drop their bigoted and discriminatory policy. Let them have a piece of your mind (I did).

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