Mirror 01/12: Top Gear "bans" gays.

[lindenchase]

www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/12/01/top-gear-ban-on-gay-couples-joining-studio-audience-115875-21863544/

Gay couples are furious after being “banned” from studio recordings of Top Gear. They are prevented from joining the TV audience under a bizarre rule that stipulates bookings must be “50 per cent male and 50 per cent female”.
But last night the policy was slammed as “discrimination”.
Simon Reeves, 26, who was turned down when he and his partner applied for tickets to the BBC2 show, said: “I couldn’t believe it. Top Gear is the blokiest show on telly but we weren’t allowed unless we took a couple of female friends. It seems unfair that a married heterosexual couple are the ‘ideal’ applicants but same sex couples have no chance whatsoever."
Simon, of Haslemere, Surrey, added: “It sounds like something Jeremy Clarkson came up with to ensure he didn’t have to put up with any gays.”

Slow news day apparently. Even the Mirror itself knows the entire story is bollocks, that's why they put the word 'ban' in brackets.

Simon mate, get a life and some female friends who want to tag along.

[Mystik]

Bah! if it was mostly guys in the viewable tv audience (gay or straight!) then the women would be out in force saying they were being discriminated against. 50/50 is fair enough!

[lymaze]

Not true anyway in terms of the 50/50 split. They prefer it but when we went it was 3 girls. We could have been in a threesome for all they knew (and I expect Jeremy would have been all in favour!) ;D

[lew]

;D.......I can't add more than that ;D

[violetrose]

....LOL, slow news day is right. That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

[Mystik]

Dec 1, 2009 12:15:48 GMT lymaze said:

We could have been in a threesome for all they knew (and I expect Jeremy would have been all in favour!) ;D

I'm seriously recommending we have a Post Contender Thread. ;D

[robin]

Dec 1, 2009 10:04:54 GMT lindenchase said:

Simon, of Haslemere, Surrey, added: “It sounds like something Jeremy Clarkson came up with to ensure he didn’t have to put up with any gays.”

That's stupid

And it's not just "gay couples" who have this problem
two male or two female friends couldn't go either

Stop taking it personally

[TheDaisy]

Oh dear Lord. So this means I can't take my girlfriend along with me....yawn yawn.

Presumably it never occurred to them to pal up with a pair of ladies who have tickets, who might also be there going "We can't get in because....." I know it's been done before, and quite frankly, it's not difficult, is it?

[Wyvern]

What a load of b*ll*cks. For starters, only Applause Store tickets are allocated 50/50 (though they have tightened up on it over the last couple of seasons, which is how I ended up going, because a male friend needed a woman to go with) - there's nothing to stop single sex groups going in on guest list tickets - and anyway, you can book a maximum of four tickets and last time I looked, a couple was two people, so a gay male couple could go along with a couple of female friends. And Jeremy's 'homophobia' is obvious, isn't it (not), from his interactions with Stephen Fry and Will Young!

[nobody]

I am surprise they still do the 50/50 rule i bet these days the 50/50 split would happen naturally.