Gay friends of Greg Rutherford denied room over sexuality

George Poole and Matthew Greenaway – two friends of Olympic athlete and former Attitude cover star Greg Rutherford – have revealed they were denied the chance to rent a room because they are gay.

The gay couple replied to a Gumtree advert offering a room in a shared house in Clapham, south London, the Evening Standard reports – but their interest in the room was immediately dismissed over text message because they were not deemed to be a “regular couple”.

Rutherford took to Twitter to share the message the couple received with his 150,000 Twitter followers – see below.

A friend of my GF is moving to London. He’s gay. He, with his boyfriend, enquired about a house share. The response? pic.twitter.com/Akexd4TLXy

— Greg Rutherford (@GregJRutherford) October 1, 2014

“A few of you tweeting to say people can choose who they live with,” Rutherford said in his next tweet. “Of *course* they can. It’s the use of ‘regular’ that’s offensive here.”

Under the 2010 Equality Act, it is illegal for a landlord in the UK to refuse to rent a property to a person or couple based on their sexuality.