For the umpteenth time, a "progressive"/liberal/whatever columnist or blogger has discovered -- oh gasp horror -- that private clubs (most places) get to dictate who may or may not join. Ooooo, the awfulness!
Which part of the word "private" is she missing out on? I think the problem stems, in part, from believing "legal" is or ought to be the same as "ethical," "fair," "moral" or "nice," none of which it necessarily is or even can be.
--Mind you, I'm not saying I approve of arbitrary discrimination; I'm saying that at a private club of which I am not a member, it's none of my darned business -- and no business of the .gov's, either.
Defiance Of Common Sense Award for this: "It may surprise some Americans to learn that not only do certain private clubs still refuse to admit African-Americans, women, and gay people, but that this kind of enrollment discrimination is considered perfectly legal." [emphasis mine] No, it is "perfectly legal." It's 2009 and you'd be hard-pressed to find a venue where "this kind of enrollment discrimination" hasn't already been tested in court. Don't like it? Join the club and work to change its policies -- or STHU.
I await with great interest the day -- probably in California -- when a huge lot culturally conservative folks join a gay bathhouse under anti-discrimination laws and turn it into a chaste place to go have a steambath. What goes around, comes around.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
8 comments:
Makes me think of the Marx brother (I forget which one), quoted as saying, (and I paraphrase):
"I wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have a member like me."
Wasn't that Mark Twain? Either way, I agree with you, if its a private club stood up from nothingness by like-minded people, it is their business and nobody elses'.
Groucho.
Do gay bathhouses still exist? When I was stationed at Ft Ord, we were told that they "bathhouse lifestyle"--pretty sure that was the phrase used, but it was over 20 years ago--was largely responsible for the AIDS epidemic taking off like it did in San Fran...
Didn't wise Latina Judge Sotomeyer belong to a club which excluded men?
How come you never read complaints about someone rejected from joining the Hells Angels or the American Nazi Party?
Sendarius - DW is right, it was Groucho and I inspired the line!
I didn't know that there were any conservatives in California.
I have a club. I am the only member. Justice Dept. is trying to close me down. They claim I discriminate against everybody; I claim that discrimination against everybody is discrimination against nobody. We're appealing to the Supreme Court.
Groucho Marx: "I wouldn't want to join a club that would have someone like me as a member." Originally from Freud, so they say.
Randy Shilt's book "And The Band Played On" goes into the gay bathhouse scandals of the early 80's in great detail. Gay activists claimed the "gay cancer" scare was drummed up by the Moral Majority, and the more evidence that piled up to the contrary, the more elaborate their conspiracy theories became.
D.W., I suppose you cold do a Google search....
The only one I ever knew about was the one that showed up in the news when our Statehouse was expanded -- their building got eminent-domained into a parking lot and they objected. Me, I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition.
Ride Fast: Um, don't the Angels and the Nazis tend to have a fairly, er, vehement rejection policy? Or at least an offputting rep for same.
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