Cardiff gay couple ‘kicked out of club for kissing’
By Will Stroude
Police are investigating allegations of homophobic abuse and discrimination after a gay couple claimed they were thrown out of a nightclub for kissing.
Oliver Brown, 21, and his boyfriend Hugh Squire, 22, were allegedly grabbed by a bouncer and thrown out of DC in Cardiff after kissing near the dancefloor, before being subjected to homophobic jibes by security staff, South Wales Evening Post reports.
Cardiff Metropolitan University student Oliver said: “I believe we have been targeted because we are gay.
“If the bouncer had said he was kicking us out because we were fighting I wouldn’t have a problem with that.
“But he saw us kissing so it was clear that was his problem, it wasn’t anything we had done.”
He explained that he remembered the incident clearly because he was on antibiotics and not drunk at the time, adding: “They said we were throwing drinks around, which was totally not the case.”
Club owner Richard Jackson has refuted the allegations, however, claiming the couple’s story is “wholly inaccurate”.
Mr Jackson said the pair were thrown out for spraying drinks around the club at an office party, arguing they were first warned by a member of the club’s staff – who is gay himself – but were then thrown out when they continued spraying drinks.
He said: “They were asked to leave because they were either spraying drinks into the staff.
“When security came over and asked them to leave that’s when they started hugging and kissing and saying, “Oh, you’re only throwing us out because we’re gay”.
“The security said, ‘No, we’ve been asked to remove you by one of our managers.'”
He continued: “My gay staff and friends are furious about this.
“We operate a zero-tolerance attitude towards any kind of discrimination.
“It wasn’t too long ago that Tom Daley and his partner came in with many of my gay friends – to say we are homophobic is a lie.”
The case is one of 29 complaints which police have cited in a request for the council to review the club’s licence. Cardiff Council will consider the report next month and decide whether the club is allowed to remain open.
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