FURORE OVER STRAIGHT BAR STAFF

The owners of two UK gay bars are defending a job advert for a new venue which specified that the applicants should be straight.

The owners of the popular AXM bar in Manchester and The Crown in Southport posted the advert for PR and flyering staff on Facebook for their new club, Downtown, last week.

It read: “Looking for flyerers/pr people for Downtown. Ideally 2 blokes/1 girl. Straight, Good looking, Outgoing etc. 20 hours per week, £6 an hour.”

PinkNews.co.uk asked the AXM Group if it was discriminating against gay people after the ad was spotted by one of the site’s readers.

Haydn Pope, of the AXM group, told PinkNews that the accusation was “ridiculous and insulting” because the company is gay-owned and gay-run and has a long track record of supporting gay causes and events.

“Ninety percent of my entire workforce are gay across the group, though I would add that we employ on ability and personality and not sexuality,” said Pope.

“Our brand new venue is situated in a hugely busy student area within Manchester, and as such I felt, and still feel, that a couple of straight students who are already established into that particular student group would be a perfect complement to our existing team of PR and flyerers,” he added.

The company may fall foul of the UK’s Equality Act which forbids discrimination in employment unless there is a “genuine, determining and proportionate” reason.