A gents-only fundraiser featuring beer, poker, big-screen TV and cigars? Try and slip that by the Washington State Human Rights Commission.
Fort Vancouver National Trust and the nearly extinct Vancouver Voice have joined together to host an “extraordinary guys event” this Friday eve, cleverly titled “Suits and a Keg“. This event, meant to raise money for Fort Vancouver, is now under formal investigation by the Washington State Human Rights Commission for Civil Rights.
According to Sharon Ortiz, director of the Commission, if an event is open to the public and charging attendees, it must be open to both sexes under state law.
The investigation was sparked by a formal complaint from Vancouverite Rebecca Pullian that the paper’s manager a freelance writer for the paper, Jared Hidden, specifically told her to not come to the party, as it is for men only and breastfeeding-free (she had requested to bring her breastfed baby).
When the complaint was filed, the ticket purchasing site for Suits and a Keg described it as a “guy’s only” event. That reference has been removed, with the main website describing it more judiciously as “truly a guy’s event.”
President of the Fort Vancouver trust, Elson Strahan, responds via email, “We have not received any formal investigation inquiry, except for a call asking if we were excluding women, to which we answered in the negative.” He added that men are only the “target audience” and than women are welcome to attend.
Vancouver Voice editor Ossie Bladine says that the VV has little to do with the event, and is unsure why it is mentioned in the complaint.
Earlier in the year, the fort hosted a financial summit specifically for women. On that note, here’s one person who’s defending the event.
Sounds like the PERFECT event to breastfeed a baby at.
A nation of whiners enriching lawyers.
If i’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Breast-feeding women ruin EVERYTHING!
Why, for the love of imaginary god, would any woman in her right mind have any interest in this event. Some people don’t know when to let things go. Let’s recap:
Douchebags drinking beer in suits
Fucking Vancouver
Women discouraged from attending
SEND THE INTERN TO THIS!!!
Maybe we are now post-post-feminist enough that we can have male-only and female-only events.
Discrimination that keeps a woman away from something important, like equal employment, is a problem. This event doesn’t seem important enough to protest.
Just add “circle jerk” to the evening’s festivities. Geez.
i am running in a women’s only half-marathon & am paying to attend & is open to the public…same thing no? bunch of whiny bee-atches if you ask me (and y, i’m a girl :>)
And what about Curves, the women’s only gym chain?
if it was specifically labelled a “guy’s only” event, perhaps this can get them out of legal hot water. They didn’t mean it was men only, they meant it was somebody named Guy’s only event.
Semantics.
Jeez, let the boys drink beer without you. You had your womens financial summit.
Next time bring beer.
All should look at the Columbian’s update. http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/aug/10/…
Serious doubts are raised as to the existence of the woman said to have filed the complaint.
You know. If they’d just had it at the gay bath house, it wouldn’t have been a problem.
@Blabby: So if it’d been “whites only” would that have been a problem? But “guys only” isn’t?
It’s wrong, and against the law as well, as the organizers seem to have belatedly realized.
Todd, yer balls snipped already?
@frankie: Maybe, maybe not. You’re welcome to taste my semen, and then you can decide.
@Todd: Sweet! Let’s hook up at a Womens Only Gym, or a Financial Summit for Women, etc etc.
Maybe your wife will be there and she can let you borrow your balls again for awhile.