Cairns caf茅 owner shaken by homophobic customers
THE聽owner of a Cairns caf茅 has spoken out about losing customers because he and his staff are gay.
Jay Horne of Paradiso caf茅 said an older couple who were once loyal regulars had told him they would no longer patronise a 鈥済ay-owned business鈥�.
Horne, a prominent figure in the Cairns LGBTI community, said he was shaken by the homophobia and the situation was 鈥渧ery difficult to comprehend鈥�.
鈥淭hey still walk past every single day but refuse to acknowledge us,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s the owner of a caf茅 I鈥檝e never experienced anything like this.
鈥淭o voice the fact that we鈥檙e gay owned and operated as being their reason is so hard to understand.
鈥淭he only thing I could really think was, okay, maybe these people think that we have a disease or a virus that they were going to contract through our caf茅, or that they believed if we touched them they would end up gay.鈥�
Horne said that while the business is gay owned and operated, the staff are not “overt” about their sexuality. “We don’t even have a rainbow flag,” he said.
The caf茅 hasn’t been impacted other than losing the two regulars, but Horne is disappointed that the gay community is still facing discrimination.
“It’s business as usual, but it’s not about that,” he said. “I wanted to let people know that these things do exist.”
Horne said fighting homophobia is important given Cairns has high rates of HIV and youth suicide, often related to a fear of not being accepted in the community as gay.
“I would have been happier if they said they don’t like bagels or they don’t like the service [rather than making it about sexuality],” he said.
I feel for you!! Once upon a time my mother and I ran a cafe/bistro in a wealthy suburb of Adelaide it was the early 1990’s we had a lots of gay customers come in not once did they feel uncomfortable…we even held a wedding for one gay couple…we really pushed the boundries then!!
I remember when Cairns was going to introduce a relationship register and at the lasy minute they changed their mind. I wonder why? The ACL influencing their decision perhaps? I am gay too just turned 19 and I have lived in Cairns for all of my life, do not be fooled by people saying that Cairn’s is a gay friendly place – in fact far from it! In Queensland because of recent legislation on civil partnerships, same sex adoption, equal age of consent and the abolition on the GPD – please do not be fooled this is a cover up by lawmakers on all sides. Queensland is still the most homophobic place within Australia. Recently a gay cowboy was harassed on Facebook for doing what he loves being a cowboy! For far too long the bigots have been in charge. Well this will soon change right now. We are here – we are gay – get over it and build a bridge bigots – it is 2017!