Wed, Jun. 02, 2004
N.J. bans `ladies nights,' citing gender discrimination
BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
New York Daily News
(KRT) - Sorry, Jersey girls.
The Garden State's top civil rights official ruled yesterday that ladies nights are gender-based promotions that discriminate - against men.
So from now on, girls who just wanna have fun will have to pay the same price for drinks and cover charges as the boys.
Commercial interests do not override the "important social policy objective of eradicating discrimination," said Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the state Division on Civil Rights.
Gov. Jim McGreevey criticized the decision, calling it "an overreaction that reflects a complete lack of common sense and good judgment."
But the governor does not have the authority to rescind the ruling. Nonetheless, he met with the state attorney general to tell him the civil rights division had better things to do with its time, an aide said.
In New York, a state Division of Human Rights spokeswoman said officials have had complaints about ladies nights and found them "to be unlawful."
Elsewhere, it's a mixed bag.
Iowa judges have said a racetrack's ladies day was illegal. And Pennsylvania's high court ruled strip joints can't let women in free but make men pay. But courts in Illinois and Washington State have not objected.
Blame the Jersey ban on a disgruntled dude, David Gillespie, who filed the complaint in June 1998 after he had to pony up $5 to get into the Coastline restaurant in Cherry Hill, N.J. Not only were women not charged admission, they drank at a discount.
The Coastline's lawyer argued they weren't trying to keep men out but hoping to lure women in.
Vespa-Papaleo disagreed. "It's the same as if you tried to say Christians can have free drinks but Jews can't," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
