Straight people in the Rainbow Quarter
Part of the quarter like everyone else: how equality law applies to all, what research says about bias, and where to get advice.
The Rainbow Quarter's motto, Be Who You Want To Be, is for everyone. Straight people live here, work here, drink here and stay here, and they have the same right to fair treatment as anyone else. This page sets out why, in law and in research, and what to do if it goes wrong.
The same law for every orientation
The Equality Act 2010 protects sexual orientation as a characteristic, not a particular group. Section 12 defines sexual orientation as orientation towards people of the same sex, the opposite sex, or either sex. Being straight is covered in exactly the same way as being gay, lesbian or bisexual.
In practice that means:
- Bars, hotels, guest houses and shops must not refuse you service, charge you more or treat you worse because you are straight, or because they think you are. The same rule stopped a guest house refusing a gay couple in a 2013 UK Supreme Court case, and it works both ways.
- Employers, including LGBTQ+ charities and businesses, must not turn down a straight applicant, or hold back a straight worker, because of their orientation.
- Indirect discrimination counts too. A rule that looks neutral but puts straight people at a disadvantage, such as expecting people to belong to a particular LGBTQ+ network to get on, is unlawful unless it can be justified as a proportionate way of meeting a legitimate aim.
Where the law allows separate spaces
Some separate spaces are lawful, and they are clearly marked on this site:
- Members' associations can limit membership to people who share a protected characteristic, under Schedule 16 of the Act. A peer-support group or members' club for LGBTQ+ people is an example.
- Men-only and women-only venues, such as saunas, are about sex rather than orientation, and the Act allows some single-sex services where they are justified.
What is not lawful is a business open to the public, or a body spending public money, shutting people out simply because they are straight.
What research says about bias
Prejudice is a human habit, and minority groups are not immune to it.
- Heterophobia can be measured. Psychologists at the University of Texas published the Gay Male Heterophobia Scale in 2019. It picked out three strands in how some gay men see straight men: expected rejection, disconnectedness (a sense of having nothing in common) and unease or avoidance. Scores were linked with sensitivity to rejection and past experience of anti-gay discrimination, so the researchers see it partly as a reaction to hostility. Understanding where it comes from does not make it fair to act on it.
- Bias inside the community is real too. A 2023 University of Sydney study in the journal Sex Roles found that both gay and straight men preferred a masculine-presenting actor to a feminine-presenting one for a leadership role, and that gay men can hold back other gay men who don't fit a masculine ideal.
The lesson is simple: being part of a minority does not stop anyone treating others unfairly, and any organisation, LGBTQ+ or not, needs fair rules and checks.
A note on the United States
In June 2025 the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services that a straight woman claiming workplace discrimination did not have to meet a higher standard of proof than a member of a minority group. That case is about US law, not UK law, but it reflects the same principle: one standard for everyone.
What this means in the Rainbow Quarter
- You are welcome. Most venues are open to everyone, and the council's Be You programme is built on that.
- Be a good guest, as everyone should be. See allies and drag night etiquette.
- Respect lawful separate spaces, such as men-only saunas and members' groups.
- Fair treatment works both ways. Everyone should feel at home here, whoever they are.
If something doesn't feel right
- Raise it calmly with the venue first; most problems are misunderstandings.
- For advice on discrimination, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service or Citizens Advice.
- If you are threatened or attacked, call 999 in an emergency or 101 otherwise. See reporting hate crime.
More
Sources
- Equality Act 2010, section 12: sexual orientation
- Equality Act 2010, Schedule 16: associations
- Citizens Advice: sexual orientation discrimination
- Provence, Parent, Rochlen and Chester (2019): Development of the Gay Male Heterophobia Scale, Psychology of Men and Masculinity
- University of Sydney: gay men discriminate against feminine gay men, new study finds (2023)
- Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services (2025)