'Gay dog' and his blind owner refused service in Australian restaurant

Gay or guide? A seeing-eye dog and its trainer (file photo). An Australian man was barred from a restaurant after staff thought his 'guide' dog was a 'gay' dog

An Australian restaurant has been fined after turning a blind customer away because they thought his guide dog was gay.

Ian Jolly, 57, was trying to enter the Thai Spice restaurant in Adelaide in May, 2009 when he was refused entry.

Staff had misheard the woman with Mr Jolly, and believed that his 'guide dog' Nudge was in fact a 'gay dog'.
The restaurant's owners said a waiter had understood the woman '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 owners said in a statement to South Australia's Equal Opportunity Tribunal.

The restaurant, which displays a 'guide dogs welcome' sign and whose ambience is described in reviews as 'relaxed', has refused to comment on the ruling to the Australian press.

Mr Jolly is set to receive a written apology and US$1,400 compensation - but the situation left a lasting mark.

'I always have that fear now, when I go out,' he said.

'I just want to be like everyone else and be able to go out for dinner,' he told Australian press.