News Release
New Boston Restaurant Agrees Not To Exclude Women As Members Of Club
Initial publicity promoted "gentlemen-only" membership in Stoddard's Friday
Club.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2009
CONTACT:
Christopher Ott, Communications Director, 617-482-3170 x322, cott@aclum.org
BOSTON --Stoddard's, a new restaurant opening in downtown Boston in
November, has agreed not to exclude women as members of its adjacent "Friday Club," which the restaurant had originally described as "gentlemen-only" in promotional material.
ACLU of Massachusetts staff attorney Sarah Wunsch praised the change, saying
that the original men-only plan raised serious questions about whether the
club would violate the state's public accommodations law.
"Even so-called 'private clubs' have been required to comply with the law
against discrimination if they really aren't genuinely private. As
announced, this club sounded like it would have to comply," Wunsch said.
Referring to the mission of the original gentlemen's club to which
Stoddard's was paying homage in creating the new Friday Club, Wunsch noted
that women as well as men "'delight in the art of dining, and... take freely
in after-dinner discussion without malice or irritation.'"
The proposed men-only club evoked memories of protests against Locke-Ober
restaurant in downtown Boston, which for many years prohibited women from
eating in the main dining room. That restaurant is now owned by a woman
chef.
"Some traditions," said Wunsch, "are worthy of 'homage,' and others deserve
to be in the dustbin of history. Traditions of discrimination based on
things like race, gender, religion, disability, or sexual orientation are
fortunately no longer allowed. We appreciate that the restaurant's owner was
willing to listen to women's rights advocates and change course in
response."
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