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An amendment to the government's Equality Bill that proposed extending protection against discrimination in the goods and services sector to lesbian and gay people was formally withdrawn in the House of Lords by Lord Waheed Alli. Tom Forrest, Scotland's homophobic B&B owner, vowed to go to jail if his ban on gay guests was made illegal. He said, "Why can't I have the right to say who can and cannot enter my premises? I will go to jail over this if I have to. I just can't let all and sundry into my B&B." Hotels cannot refuse guests on the grounds of race, gender or disability, but it's not illegal to bar us.

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Sir Ian McKellen called the legal discrimination against gays in UK hotels "outrageous" and "disgraceful." He's not alone in the idea either. More than 100 MPs are standing up against the Government and threatening to force it to ban homophobic discrimination in hotels - the first Commons defeat since coming to power in 1997. Gay couple David Allard and Bryn Hughes were refused a double room at a guesthouse, prompting VisitBritain, the tourist board, to review its code of conduct - where it remains legal for hoteliers to refuse a room on the basis of sexuality.

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