A Wellington bar has apologised after a World AIDS Day collector was told she was not allowed in because the venue didn’t want to be seen to be “taking a side”. In response to the collector’s experience, Dixon St bar Hope Bros tells GayNZ.com Daily News “there must be some confusion”. It says it has a policy not to allow anyone to sell sponsorship or any fund-raising activity in the bar, as customer experience is its prime focus. “If someone commented it would have been their individual view and not that of the operating company,” Hope Bros management says. “Please accept our apology if this was represented in the wrong manner.” The New Zealand AIDS Foundation’s Shaun Robinson says HIV is a worldwide pandemic that has affected over 70million people. “Any human being should surely be on the side of humanity against the HIV virus.” Only a small minority of bars prevented collectors from entering on Friday night and most collectors spoken to by GayNZ.com Daily News report positive, enriching experiences. Among the anecdotes are one man’s experience that rich people don’t give as much as the poor. The collector left a bucket at his workplace, full of affluent people, all day, but received more cash from homeless people when he shook another bucket on K’ Rd. Several men with signs of the ravages of HIV also report they were ignored by people on the street, who preferred to donate to younger, more attractive collectors.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 1st December 2013 - 10:51am