A gay couple was turned away from an Italian guesthouse after the owner told the pair that they don’t accept “gays or animals.” Gennarro Casalino and his parter tried to stay at the Ciufo guesthouse in Calabria that they reserved on Booking.com, but the owner soon reached out on Whatsapp asking for more personal information The owners told them that they “believe in traditional families.” Also adding: “This is important and I don’t want to appear like a troglodyte, but we don’t accept gays and animals.
The couple described hearing this news. “It was like getting a silo of ice cold water,’ Casalino told Arcigay. “In my mind I could see the infamous images of Nazi signs outside of shops saying “forbidden entry to dogs and Jews.”
The owner insisted that he didn’t mean the message to be offensive—it was a punctuation mistake while driving (yea, OK). But concluded that the guesthouse is a private home and that he and his wife are devout Catholics, and basically that under Italian law can ban service from anyone (or animal) they see fit.
