A complaint will probably be made to the Human Rights Commission about a hotel’s refusal to host two talks by a same-sex marriage opponent.

Melvyn Bassett, spokesman for a group going by the names Preserve Marriage and Concerned Citizens of Bermuda, told The Royal Gazette: “It’s likely.”

Hamilton Princess, Bermuda initially took the booking for two public forums featuring American right-wing commentator Ryan Anderson this month but general manager Allan Federer pulled the plug when he learnt about the subject matter in the media.

Mr Federer said the hotel would not be a “venue for anti-diversity discussions” — prompting Preserve Marriage to claim that banning the presentations violated the “definition and practice of diversity in every form”.

Section five of the Human Rights Act bans discrimination in the supply of goods, facilities or services because of religion, belief or politics, among other things, and Preserve Marriage said it was denied “goods and services” and would seek “immediate redress”.

Dr Bassett told The Royal Gazette: “I don’t think they [the organisers] wanted to confuse Ryan Anderson and that issue. The group simply said they didn’t think they were being treated fairly but they didn’t want to address it at that time and cloud the real issue. It’s likely that something may come out of it.”

As group spokesman, Dr Bassett has been the lone figurehead of Preserve Marriage since it formed in October in response to the Ministry of Community, Culture and Sports seeking public feedback on the topic at town hall meetings.

He said this week the group was composed of a committee of about 14 or 15 people but he did not have permission to share their names.

Dr Bassett added that the members represented the thousands of people who have signed the group’s online petition against same-sex marriage since its launch in October.

“They are people from all walks of life,” said the former principal of Sandys Secondary Middle School and former director of Sandys 360.

“There are pastors, there are housewives, husbands, church people, people who are not necessarily church people who believe in the preservation of marriage. There are 7,000 people who signed the petition.

“It’s people representing preserving marriage. A collection of people who meet on an ad hoc basis. Just about all the churches in Bermuda are involved.”

One member of the group contacted by this newspaper asked not to be named, telling us: “There is a lot of hostility so people don’t want to come out individually to be attacked. There is a lot of aggressiveness in the past against anyone who wants to defend the traditional meaning of marriage and the existing laws in Bermuda.”

Cornerstone Bible Fellowship has backed the petition while insisting it is not behind it.

An e-mail from this newspaper to the address preservemarriagebda@gmail.com prompted an automatic out-of-office reply from Cornerstone pastor Joseph Furbert earlier this month but no one responded to the request for comment.

Preserve Marriage’s petition at www.preservemarriage.bm had 7,183 signatures by yesterday afternoon. A petition at www.change.org calling for same-sex marriage to be legalised, launched by campaigner Tony Brannon in April, had 3,528.