Legal advice given re Oxford Hotel bouncer - anti-discrimination board

David and I attended the Inner City Legal Centre yesterday evening, as was directed by advice from our social worker at ACON. They give free legal advice there 2 nights a week to LGBT people, from volunteer legal professionals. 

We were seeking their view of what action we may take against the Oxford Hotel over our encounter with the homophobic thug bouncer they had at the door the other week, who called me a "fag", charged down the street at David after he called him a homophobe, before being intercepted by the 2nd bouncer to stop him, took David's picture and sent it to all the bouncers on Oxford St as a trouble maker so we we barred everywhere for the rest of the night, and had us both barred permanently from the Oxford Hotel (not that we ever want to go there again).

We also haven't received any reply to the complaint we sent to the pub. No apology, not even an acknowledgement that we'd been wronged. Not a peep. Despite the large amount of support and shock from elsewhere of how we were treated.Instead we've been barred from the place. 

I don't want anything to do with court and we certainly won't be taking it that far. The legal advice is to file a complaint against the pub with the Anti-discrimination Board. A comparatively informal way to go about things, perhaps ending up in mediation if it went that far. It's also free to lodge a complaint with them.

We just want some kind of recognition from the pub that we've been wronged. Why should we have to put up with this from any pub, let alone one right smack on Taylor Square FFS? Supposed to be a safe space for the LGBT.

After this process the advice is also that if any media is interested in the story we'd be free to go to them. I was considering the gay media, as I'm sure such an iconic pub as the Oxford Hotel that has been such a big part of the gay community over the decades will garner quite a bit of interest within the community over it's discriminatory behaviour with us, against two LGBT long term customers. We want to shame the place, and get it into their head that they can't treat the LGBT like that.

After all, it was the pub who put a homophobic thug bouncer at their door in the middle of gay Oxford St, so they must bear ultimate responsibility for the behaviour of the guy.