June 3, 2004

Yo, Miss. That’ll Be Five Bucks, Please.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jim @ 10:35 pm

Ladies Night.jpgLadies Night, a popular institution in the Garden State, might well be history as a result of a recent decision by New Jersey’s Director or Civil Rights who ruled that Ladies Nights (i.e. the practice of bars and restaurants giving discounts only to women) violates New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination. The issue arose as a result of a male patron of a saloon in South Jersey lodging a formal complaint with the State Division of Civil Rights about having to pay a cover charge to get into a bar, while women did not have to pay anything.

For many years, bar owners have bolstered their weeknight business by hosting Ladies Nights and offering free admission, drink discounts or free drinks to women. One needs not qualify for membership in Mensa to see that these kinds of events attract women, which, in turn, attract men, and which, in turn, make money for the saloon owner. It works like a charm, because it’s basically a “birds and bees” thing.

In his decision, J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, the Director of Civil Rights, stated, “To interpret (the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination) to permit such ‘minor’ acts of discrimination would be to disregard its intended goal, which is nothing less than the eradication of the cancer of discrimination.” The decision aligns New Jersey with states such as California (surprise, surprise), New York, and Florida (Who knew?), which have come to similar legal conclusions.

Obviously, the bar owners hate the decision, and even our embarrassment of a Governor called the ruling “bureaucratic nonsense.” My guess is that Jersey guys also won’t like the ruling very much.

Whether one likes it or not, the decision is probably a correct interpretation of the state’s Law Against Discrimination. I wonder about how the women who regularly took advantage of Ladies Nights feel about the decision.

It would appear that equality sometimes comes with a cover charge.

4 Comments »

  1. I heard about this. I wonder how long before other states follow suit. I agree it’s the right interpretation, am very surprised this hasn’t come up before. But I bet I know why it’s been filed now. 🙂 Poor guy probably didn’t benenfit from “woman drinking free”. (wait, can I say that outloud)

    Comment by Tammi — June 4, 2004 @ 7:41 am

  2. Sure you can say that here. It’s just us and maybe a couple lost souls who stumble into the place. 🙂

    Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — June 4, 2004 @ 9:26 am

  3. I would be real curious to see a photo of this dweeb. Be interesting to see it prominently displaced with a caption.

    Dedicated to the one who freed us from the discrimination of Ladies Night.

    Comment by Dan Kauffman — June 4, 2004 @ 10:02 pm

  4. Without doing the proper extensive research (because I’m gonna be late to work already), I do believe that a couple of whiners in San Diego were the ones that started the mess in California. But when some background checking on the complainers was done, it was discovered they’d filed many such “discrimination” suits with the alleged goal of settling out of court for large sums. Kind of undermines the “we’re only doing this because it’s bad and unfair” argument, doesn’t it?

    I personally think it’s nothing more than a glorified nuisance lawsuit.

    Comment by LeeAnn — June 5, 2004 @ 11:04 am

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