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| - I attempted to join a bunch of friends for a birthday celebration here tonight on 6/2/17 but this bar kicked me out because I was wearing a miniskirt and high-heeled boots (my wonder woman costume). This is the first time on Mill Avenue this has happened to me in 26 years of living in the Phoenix/Tempe area. I tried to explain to them that Tempe (as does Phoenix) has an anti-discrimination ordinance, which supposedly applies to all businesses of public accommodation, which can be found if you search for Tempe anti-discrimination ordinance, under Article VIII, Section 2-600 in the Tempe City Code. The staff were pretty rude about the entire thing, and I let them know in no uncertain terms how I felt about their discriminatory conduct. Eventually, they summoned the police and apparently the Tempe city cops need some education on this ordinance, because I see no exception for attire. Although the cops were pleasant, they told me downtown bars are free to discriminate like this. Any bar is a place of public accommodation, and if it is for profit (non-profit social clubs and religious organizations are exempt), the bar cannot discriminate based on gender, gender identity or gender expression. If we are going to allow bars and other businesses to arbitrarily kick people out based on attire, then these laws are meaningless, and discrimination will continue in our society unabated. As long as a person is not violating the public indecency laws of this state, then they have no right to do this.
I will be pursuing this with the City of Tempe (both police and the anti-discrimination enforcement section), and of course, I won't be patronizing this place with my money. I have lots of other choices.
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