Affordable [and gay-free] Suites of America

A gay couple looking to rent a hotel room say they were turned away because of their sexuality.

“She wasn’t discreet about it,” said Jason Pickel, referring to a hotel employee. “She was not apologetic. She just said, ‘We do not rent to gay people.’”

For the past two and a half years, Pickel and Darren Black Bear have been in a committed relationship. During a search for a temporary home, the couple says it went to Affordable Suites of America, a long-term stay hotel located on Gion Street in Sumter.

“We were inquiring about the price, deposits, extra person fee, and she asked who the room was going to be for, and I said for my partner and I,” Pickel said. “She said, ‘Oh we don’t rent to multiple people of the same sex.’ I said, so you don’t rent to gay couples? She said, ‘No, we don’t rent to gay people at all.’” (source)

It’s amazing to me in this day and age that we still run across this. Kent and I travel a lot and we’ve never run into this situation. We do try to stay within major hotel chains. Perhaps that’s the difference. At any rate, if we should ever find ourselves in Virginia, North Carolina, or South Carolina (I’d rather eat glass), we won’t be staying at the Suites of America where this occurred.

Of course, now that the media has gotten hold of this, they are now denying it all.

However, when News19 called the owner of the hotel, Carroll Atkisson, he says there had been some confusion. He says any couple can come to the place and they will rent to them, period. Atkisson says the policy was not mean to target homosexuals. He says they were just trying to stop two single people from being in the same bed.

Righhhhhhhhht. That sounds believable. Better to be cheap than bigoted. I suppose this still happens in many areas of the country. When it does, find a different motel that will rent to you, and simply make it known what they are and what their policies are. Bigotry hates light.