In January of this year Rebekah Wershbale was barred from her local because of her t-shirt.
She was barred from the Fiveclouds Tap & Bottle in Cheshire for wearing a black t-shirt with the slogan: “Woman: adult human female”, on the grounds that it was transphobic.
The complaint came from another customer who thought that the t-shirt wasn’t inclusive despite the slogan being a dictionary definition.
Wershbale, who had a history of incidents at the bar, was banned until she properly discusses the situation with staff – was this a fair judgement or political correctness gone too far?
As a licensee you do have legal duties, one of which is not to discriminate against anyone because of, for example, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion and of course gender reassignment.
A licensee also has the right to refuse entry or ask someone to leave the premises as long as this doesn’t breach equality legislation.
Under the 2003 Licensing Act it states that one of the licensing objectives is to prevent crime and disorder and another to prevent public nuisance – therefore if a customer’s behaviour is likely to infringe upon these objectives then it stands they should be removed.
Ultimately it is your decision as the licensee what you do in such circumstances – just ensure you provide a safe and welcoming place for everyone and create the ambience you want to promote!