Heterosexuals have been banned from staying at a gay hotel in Australia after the Victorian state Civil and Administrative Tribunal agreed to give the hotel the right to bar people from entering if the management considers them a threat to the safety and comfort of its patrons. The management of the Peel Hotel complained that the hotel's straight visitors created "a poisonous atmosphere" for its gay clientčle and asked that they be given the right to keep them out.

According to BBC, the management said the ban would prevent straight men and women from abusing the hotel's gay customers.

The president of the tribunal said straight women who stayed at the hotel would find the gay male visitors entertaining - and that it was dehumanizing.

The Peel Hotel had to win exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act, which prevents discrimination based on race, religion or sexuality.

The decision was supported by the human rights group Liberty Victoria.

AFP reports Liberty Victoria's vice-president, Michael Pearce, said, "There ae numerous places where heterosexual people can go, and I think what the VCAT has said is that there aren't that many places where gay people can go and meet without the risk of being harassed or vilified, and that they are entitled to have their own spaces to do that in."