Everyone knows The Peel Hotel’s Tom McFeely - he has been in the news a lot lately. While admittedly not everyone’s favourite person, more people respect McFeely than not, for his dedication to his customer base - namely Melbourne’s gay males - and his ability to articulate their rights and needs.

McFeely has been running The Peel in Melbourne’s inner-city Collingwood for the past fourteen years and says he has been in hospitality “forever”. But his well-documented experiences lately have made him think outside the square of Melbourne’s gay bar scene.

Earlier this year, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) granted McFeely’s venue a three year exemption to refuse or restrict entry to people who do not identify as homosexual males – a landmark case that was reported everywhere from lads’ magazines to ABC’s ‘The Chaser’.

Having just dusted himself off from that fight, McFeely finds himself and The Peel again at the center of another controversy - this time at the spike of a wider-ranging debate about new residential development versus pre-existing entertainment in Melbourne’s culture-rich inner city.

“To be honest this has made me think a wee bit more about lobbying government and perhaps getting involved in politics,” he admits. “It’s all very well to sit back and think ‘well, people should do something’, but this particular issue has got me fired up and made me think that to make people do something you have to get involved. I’ve been thinking that perhaps I should?”
 
How does McFeely feel about being a role model for other people out there? “I wouldn’t classify myself as a spokesperson but I do think with this it’s taken the Peel to highlight the issue,” he says of his current battle. “There are organisations in Victoria that represent the industry that should’ve done more sooner, rather than waiting for a venue like The Peel to get picked on. But if that has to be the one, then that’s fine. I realise that The Peel is a bit of an infamous venue, but I’m more than happy to lobby government on this issue.”

McFeely references fellow venue owner Dale Smedley of DT’s in Richmond as a role model of his own. “I’ve always been very business driven and Dale’s helped me think a bit more about the community,” he admits. “So I think his influence over the 11 years has been a tremendous help to me.” 

By Danny Corvini