[T]he gay American novelist Armistead Maupin and his partner Chris Turner were in Alice Springs, where they visited one of the town's better-known restaurants, Bojangles Saloon. When Turner asked if he could use the men's room, he was directed to a public toilet across the street. The barman told him that Bojangle's facilities were ''reserved for real men''...Maupin and Turner reported...[barman’s] comments to Tourism Central Australia, and in an interview with local ABC radio. They received a flood of messages from sympathisers outraged by the barman's behaviour and...an apology from Bojangles' management...Many Australians...remember a time when apologies for such remarks would either have been refused or made with extreme reluctance...