The Closing Door

A few Fridays ago I decided to head to Pam Pam in Bristol with two friends for a few drinks. Although there was no queue outside, we were turned away by the stoic door staff who, when pressed, muttered something about the fact that we were all male. I told this story to the management, who explained that the door staff were simply adhering to their door policy; “Sometimes we don’t let groups of men in to balance out the numbers. It’s something [the door staff] like to do, because you don’t want one woman to seven men inside the club.” She added that they had never experienced any trouble coming from admitting groups of men, so it seems that the policy is in place to maintain a sophisticated ambience inside the venue. It seems that my friends and I just happened to turn up at the wrong time. Such a practice is typical at venues with pretensions of exclusivity.

Perhaps I shouldn’t complain. Access is arbitrarily denied to innocent clubbers every weekend, throughout the country, even at venues known for the inclusive attitude. Last year the attention of the liberal media fixed on the case of two lesbians who were turned away from Soho’s G.A.Y. club because, they were told, they didn’t “look dyke enough”. There was a modest outcry, and Peter Tatchell’s OutRage! gay rights campaign group voiced its concern. Looking back now, David Allison, a spokesman for the organisation, expresses only bemusement.

“It was very unusual, which was why it attracted such a lot of publicity at the time. G.A.Y, like anywhere else, is out to make money, and you don’t make money by turning away punters on the door… in reality, we rarely get complaints from people who were turned away because they look too gay, or too straight, or whatever. What happened to the two lesbians was exceptional.”

Perhaps the story of those two unfortunate women just shows that all it takes to ruin your night is one bouncer in a bad mood. The moment you join the queue, you capitulate to the whim of the guys at the door with black coats and walkie talkies, whether you like it or not. It remains the managements legal right to refuse entry, a fact often repeated when allegations of mistreatment are made by customers.

In September 2005 the Revolution bar in Edinburgh successfully deflected allegations of racism on the door when a British born Chinese student, Michael Lee, complained after being told by door staff that the venue was admitting “no Chinese tonight”. Two Edinburgh councillors championed Mr Lee’s case, pointing to similar incidents at the venue and calling for swift and appropriate action to be taken. A spokesperson for Luminar Leisure, which owns Revolution, defended the doormen’s actions in a statement to the Scotsman newspaper by explaining that they were in response to a violent incident involving over 30 Asian youths in the club earlier in the week. She highlighted the fact that when Lee was being turned away 30 Asian people were inside the venue, before making it clear that the powers of the management to refuse entry to anyone suspected of causing disruption or antisocial behaviour remain protected by law.

That being said, the privilege of the management extends only so far. There are limits to what is acceptable, and the law serves equally to protect us against discrimination and harassment. The Race Relations Act is one piece of legislation which exists for that purpose, and is strictly enforced by the Commission for Racial Equality. Despite this, indicators are that unfairly discriminative door policies along racial or ethnic lines are widely employed throughout the leisure industry.

There are watchdogs in place to safeguard against such behaviour and the first port of call for those who decide to speak out is often the local regional Racial Equality Council. Anne Matin, from the Norfolk and Norwich REC, explains their role. “We help clients to take their complaints to the civil courts when they feel they have been discriminated against, not just in cases where access has been denied but also if they have been mistreated when inside the club. Racial harassment is actually a criminal offence, and we refer those cases on to the police for consideration by the Crown Prosecution Service.” Matin is herself currently monitoring closely several such cases being brought against well-known venues in Norwich, and explains that racism on the door remains a serious concern. “We have been dealing with cases like this for over ten years since we started our “Not In Norwich” initiative… It’s still a very serious matter, because the UK is developing more of a leisure culture all the time. I don’t think some venues realise how seriously people take this issue.”

It is regrettable that such complaints are made against clubs and bars every single week. A proportion of these are of course unwarranted, but too many are made legitimately, after real offence has been caused and real upset felt. Nightclubs should be places where we can let our guard down, relax, socialise, and have fun. From the industry’s point of view, it makes no sense to discriminate against social groups. With competition within our expanding bar culture hotter than ever, venues can ill afford to write off entire sections of the market. It is simply prejudice, exercised by individuals, which keeps turning us away.