Homophobia at the Premier Inn

woodmally1979

Thunderxx wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I own a lesbian social network with around 100, 000 members.

18 months ago I stayed at the Premier Inn at Heathrow and was annoyed and upset when I was unable to get onto my website because their firewall blocked the keyword Lesbian stating that it was "Harmful to the young public".

There is absolutely no adult content on my website.

I had several emails and calls with their complaints department who said that it would be changed.

I hadn't been to another Premier Inn until Friday night when I took my partner to London for her Birthday.

I needed to make a small change on my site that I could not do from an Apple device so I used the public computer provided by the Premier Inn.

To my dismay any site that has a keyword of lesbian is blocked because it is "Harmful to the young public".

I feel that it is out-dated homophobia. If keywords belonging to other minority groups were banned I think lawyers would be suing for discrimination!

What does anyone else think and has anyone any advice on how I can try to get this changed?

Thanks in advance,

Jane

I also work for a govt agency as some of the other posts and our LGBT group had to argue with our IT team to remove the block for Lesbian gay and transgendered words so its worth campaigning to get this changed.

I dont think its homophobia just a way the IT team can manage content but it is a bit lazy so worth pointing it out to them.

Problem with blocks generally though is they are difficult to manage. For example my friend whose surname is Allcock had his emails blocked at a previous job.

BJV

woodmally1979 wrote: »

I also work for a govt agency as some of the other posts and our LGBT group had to argue with our IT team to remove the block for Lesbian gay and transgendered words so its worth campaigning to get this changed.

I dont think its homophobia just a way the IT team can manage content but it is a bit lazy so worth pointing it out to them.

Problem with blocks generally though is they are difficult to manage. For example my friend whose surname is Allcock had his emails blocked at a previous job.

Don't wish to sound rude but why would you have to search for the word lesbian in your every day role?

BJV

I am heterosexual and to protect young and vulnerable people from some of the strange people on line certain words will be blocked and should be blocked.


I have friends in the gay and lesbian community and know how important it is that we all treat each other the same regardless of gender, sexuality but that is it - it should be the same.


Not exclude heterosexual and include gay and lesbian. Sorry really can not see that this is a question of homophobia. If it was then you would be able to search for all manor of sexual acts with men and women and nothing same sex.


Instead I really think that this is just a case of trying to protect with a basic set of rules by which search engines have to follow. This will mean that there will be innocent websites affected. Sorry

Justicia

daytona0 wrote: »

I'm currently sat in a Premier Inn on their internet and have been able to search "lesbians" on google and the !!!!!! sites load up too... No idea what OP was doing lol

daytona0 wrote: »

Wouldn't want to do a lesbian search whilst on the public access terminal....

I don't think that you took your roving reporter role for this thread very seriously, did you...??

pmduk

daytona0 wrote: »

Wouldn't want to do a lesbian search whilst on the public access terminal....

Now that does sound like homophobia! jk

Money-Saving-King

BJV wrote: »

I am heterosexual and to protect young and vulnerable people from some of the strange people on line certain words will be blocked and should be blocked.


I have friends in the gay and lesbian community and know how important it is that we all treat each other the same regardless of gender, sexuality but that is it - it should be the same.


Not exclude heterosexual and include gay and lesbian. Sorry really can not see that this is a question of homophobia. If it was then you would be able to search for all manor of sexual acts with men and women and nothing same sex.


Instead I really think that this is just a case of trying to protect with a basic set of rules by which search engines have to follow. This will mean that there will be innocent websites affected. Sorry

I think the issue is that lesbian is not a sexual act or !!!!!!, it is just a sexuality.

I wonder what would happen if you typed heterosexual in, would that be blocked?

vuvuzela

BJV wrote: »

Don't wish to sound rude but why would you have to search for the word lesbian in your every day role?

You don't really sound rude, just thoughtless.
Why do you think they are 'searching' ? The poster just said the word is blocked. This could be via filters on web browsing (not searching) blocking LGBTQ websites or filters blocking words in emails. I suspect you've over-thought this yourself and got it wrong.

vuvuzela

BJV wrote: »

I am heterosexual and to protect young and vulnerable people from some of the strange people on line certain words will be blocked and should be blocked.

What a strange sentence. Why on earth do you need to proclaim your heterosexuality in the first few words of your post ?

mummy81_2

I wouldn't want my children exposed to lesbian material so I am glad it is banned.

gik

vuvuzela wrote: »

What a strange sentence. Why on earth do you need to proclaim your heterosexuality in the first few words of your post ?

Do you have a problem with post #83 which begins 'As a lesbian myself'?