Chris Penner, owner of a bar called the Twilight Room Annex in Portland, OR, has been ordered to pay $400, 000 to a group of cross-dressers he prohibited from entering the club last year, reports Associated Press.
The city’s Bureau of Labor and Industries civil rights division imposed the penalty against Penner, who allegedly told members of the Rose City T-Girls not to come to his club because they’d driven away the bar’s other Friday night customers.
“He did not exclude them and did not intend to exclude them; he simply asked that they not use the P Club on Friday nights because it had killed his business,” Johnathan Radmacher, Penner’s lawyer, said.
Photo: Flickr
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Dakotahgeo
Geeez… how much do these crackerjacks have to lose before they learn??? DON’T DISCRIMINATE!!! EVER!!
Merv
Whoa, that’s one hefty fine!
CaptainFabulous
Ah yes, the old “I didn’t tell you you could *never* come, but only come when I say so, like when no one else is around” defense. Um, no.
Taliaferro
I wonder how long it will take his cherished Friday night regulars, the ones he claims were staying away because of the cross dressers, to spend enough on booze to pay for that fine. Business owners with any sense realize that the LGBT community tends to have significant disposable income which they spend where they feel welcome. Penner’s defense is no defense. Perhaps he will lose his business and someone more enlightened will take it over – and welcome everyone.
Jay
Sorry, but a hobby does not afford you protected class status, and this is not a win for the LGBT community as “Susan Miller” is neither gay nor transgender. Accept that your hobby makes others uncomfortable, and move on. There are plenty of LGBT friendly establishments where patrons would not care how you dressed, but I suppose that is not an option if attention whoring is your goal.
As a gay man, I have no compulsion/desire to dress in women’s clothes, and view drag queens as stage entertainers. However, I have a problem with “Susan Miller” et.al. portraying themselves as victims and whoring in on a very real struggle for equal rights (notice, I did not say acceptance). The bottom line is these cross dressing heterosexuals exploited the law, and tarnished the group of people the law is intended to protect.
Equal rights can come without acceptance, but the fight is significantly more difficult. Gaining acceptance will not happen if the mainstream LGBT does not reject abuses of the law and support the standards of the community in which we want to be considered equals.
Be who you are, do what you want, but do it at home… and please don’t ask me to support your deviant attention whoring.
——————————————From the Website:
“Susanmillers Blog My life as a heterosexual crossdresser.” “HI all my name is Susan Miller and I am a crossdresser in my mid 40’s. I live in the Portland metro area of Oregon in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I like to dress up as a woman and go out with friends. This does not mean I am gay, far from it. I am only attracted to genetic woman sorry guys. I just have a love of all things female, makeup, dresses, high heels and long nails, acrylic nails. There is nothing like going to the nail salon and having your nails done.
Some people may not understand my little hobby so I thought I would create a blog to write about it to try to help explain why and how I feel when I am Susan. This will also serve as a record for myself of my life as Susan Miller.
I am not a woman trapped in a man’s body and I have no desire to be a woman full time. I just really like being Susan sometimes and I love dressing up and wearing pretty clothes and makeup. Women are so lucky. They have all the cute clothes and shoes while men get plain boring stuff to wear.”