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BREAKING: South Australian restaurant refuses entry to blind man's "gay dog"
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[link to www.adelaidenow.com.au]
A RESTAURANT that refused a blind man entry because it thought his guide dog was "gay" has been ordered by the Equal Opportunity Tribunal to pay him $1500.
Woodville North man Ian Jolly, 57, was barred from dining at Grange restaurant Thai Spice in May last year after a staff member mistook his guide dog Nudge for a "gay dog", the tribunal heard this week.
A statement given by restaurant owners Hong Hoa Thi To and Anh Hoang Le said one of the waiters had understood Mr Jolly's partner Chris Lawrence "to be saying she wanted to bring a gay dog into the restaurant".
"The staff genuinely believed that Nudge was an ordinary pet dog which had been desexed to become a gay dog," the statement said.
Mr Jolly and Ms Lawrence were refused entry to the restaurant - which displays a "guide dogs welcome" sign - even after providing staff with a guide dogs fact card.
At an Equal Opportunity Tribunal conciliation hearing on Friday, the restaurant agreed to provide Mr Jolly with a written apology and attend an Equal Opportunity education course, in addition to paying him $1500.
Mr Jolly said while he was happy with the result, the embarrassing incident had dampened his enthusiasm for eating out at restaurants. "It gives you some comfort that Equal Opportunity is there," he said.
"But I always have that fear now, when I go out.
"I just want to be like everybody else and be able to go out for dinner, to be left alone and just enjoy a meal."
Thai Spice refused to speak to the Sunday Mail when contacted for comment during the week.
The tribunal is also set to hear another case where a visually impaired man was refused entry to a city restaurant because the chef was allergic to dogs.
The man, whose identity is being kept secret by the tribunal, said the manager told him he could not bring his guide dog into the restaurant unless he had permission from the police.
The manager also told him he could not come in because the chef was allergic to dogs.
A date for the conciliation hearing is yet to be set.
Equal Opportunity spokeswoman Corina Mulholland said there was an increasing number of disability discrimination issues being reported to the commission.
In the last financial year, the commission received 499 disability related inquiries, and it has already received 440 inquiries from July 2009 to mid-March.
It predicted a 23 per cent increase in inquiries relating to disability discrimination compared with last financial year.
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