A man in Vancouver seeking temporary accommodation was rejected from renting a room after the landlord found out he was gay.
Caleb Gardiner found a short-term room on Craigslist while he hunted for an apartment in the area. The house rules stated that any additional guests would add $10 per night to the bill.
"It seemed like everything was fine," Gardiner told CTV Vancouver.
However, when he mentioned the word ‘boyfriend’ in a text message to the landlord, known only as Jenny, she swiftly replied that it would be against her religion to let them stay.
“Sorry!” she wrote in a text message to Gardiner. “If you guys are gay, I cannot allow this happen in my house. Pls don’t bring your boyfriend to sleep over in my house. If you insist to do so, I would refund all your money & please leave tomorrow and find somewhere to stay."
“Sorry I am very firm about this matter," she continued, adding: “I am a Christian, it’s totally against my God’s will. I don’t want this thing in my house at all."
Gardiner told BuzzFeed that he was “outraged” when he received Jenny’s text messages but soon discovered that the discrimination was technically legal.
Section 10 of the British Columbia Human Rights Code states that tenants cannot be discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, ability, sexual orientation or gender identity—but the rule doesn’t apply in shared accommodation situations.
"I think it was presumed by people that given marriage equality in Vancouver for more than 10 years now that this sort of thing wouldn’t be legal,” he told BuzzFeed.
Gardiner hopes that by drawing attention to the unusual law, he can help other people who find themselves in his situation.
“If something like this could impact change, that would be really awesome,” he said.
Gardiner and his boyfriend have since found somewhere to live.
