Right to Refuse Service no longer exists in Amerika.
Chris Penner
Fox News: An Oregon bar owner must pay $400,000 in damages to a group of transgender patrons after they were asked to stay away, the Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed Wednesday. The state Bureau of Labor and Industries ordered the penalty in 2013, saying the Portland bar violated a law that prohibits discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Chris Penner, owner of a bar formerly known as the Twilight Room Annex, or more widely the P Club, left two voicemail messages for a member of the Rose City T-Girls, a group of transgender customers that frequented the bar every Fright night starting in 2012.
The messages ordered the group to stop visiting because business had declined in the 18 months since the bar became their gathering spot. Penner said people were incorrectly assuming the club was a gay or “tranny” bar.
The Oregonian reports the complaint against Penner was the first brought under the Oregon Equality Act of 2007 and the first to result in a damages award.
“People are not coming in because they just don’t want to be there on a Friday night now,” he said in one message. “In the beginning sales were doing fine, but they’ve been on a steady decrease so I have to look at what the problem is, what the reason is and take care of it.”
Jonathan Radmacher, Penner’s attorney, said his client might continue the legal fight. He said Penner merely expressed a desire and didn’t refuse service to anyone who came to the bar, drawing a contrast with bakeries that have declined to make cakes for same-sex weddings.
“Originally, the Rose City T-Girls approached his business and asked if this is going to be a problem and they said, ‘No.'” Radmacher said Wednesday. “In essence, he was going back to them and saying, ‘This is a problem for my business.’ We think he’s got a constitutional right to make that inquiry.”
Some of the Rose City T-Girls
The Appeals court disagreed that the voicemails represented protected speech. Judge Douglas Tookey said arguments presented by the respondents were “unpreserved, undeveloped or unavailing.” The opinion does not name the patrons who were denied service, aside from Cassandra Lynn, the T-Girl who received the voicemail messages. The opinion states there are 11 aggrieved people in the case.
Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian praised the court decision, saying in a statement his agency is committed to ensuring people are not denied access “based on who they are or who they love.”
Penner closed the Twilight Room Annex in April 2014 and laid off five employees after his bank accounts were seized in connection to the $400,000 judgment, according to The Oregonian.
From The Oregonian:
“The group had frequented the North Lombard Street bar every Friday night for two years. They brought anywhere from a dozen to 40 people — some who crossdress, others who have fully transitioned to female — into the club each week. But their presence drove other customers away and caused declining sales, Penner said.
In a 2012 interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Penner said he is neither homophobic nor anti-transgender people. He once hosted a weekly queer dance night in the space, and a gay pool team has practiced in the bar. But, he said, other customers complained that the T-Girls left the stall doors open and seats up in the women’s restrooms. Business also had declined since the T-Girls started coming to the bar, he said.
In his appeal, Penner contended that he had not refused to provide service to anyone and that he had a constitutional right to express a desire that the T-Girls stop frequenting his business. The court rejected the arguments, saying it agreed with Avakian that the voice messages were tantamount to denials of service.”
DCG
