No Special Nightclub Entry for the Beautiful People in D.C.

I just noticed that D.C. public accommodation law bans discrimination by places of public accommodations based on "personal appearance." So when you're next in line for a D.C. club and you see them letting in the better-looking people—or even the more fashionably dressed people—first, tell them you'll be suing. On the other hand, since "Washington is Hollywood for ugly people," maybe D.C. nightclubs don't care about how you look, only how powerful you or your connections are.

Note that this law likely doesn't forbid certain dress codes, if "uniformly applied":

"Personal appearance" means the outward appearance of any person, irrespective of sex, with regard to bodily condition or characteristics, manner or style of dress, and manner or style of personal grooming, including, but not limited to, hair style and beards. It shall not relate, however, to the requirement of cleanliness, uniforms, or prescribed standards, when uniformly applied for admittance to a public accommodation, or when uniformly applied to a class of employees for a reasonable business purpose; or when such bodily conditions or characteristics, style or manner of dress or personal grooming presents a danger to the health, welfare or safety of any individual.

Naturally, I don't say this to praise D.C. law, just to report on it.

Comments

[Longtobefree]

" . . . irrespective of sex . . . "
Ah, but gender, what about gender?

[DaivdBehar]

DC is mostly Democrat. The Democrat Party is the party of the ugly people. See the hideously and offensively ugly people on MSNBC. The Democrat agenda is their revenge against a country that rejected and mistreated them so badly.

[Longtobefree]

"or when such bodily conditions or characteristics, style or manner of dress or personal grooming presents a danger to the health, welfare or safety of any individual."

So no MAGA hats, but Che shirts are OK?

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Sure. Che is dead and no threat. Trump is alive and a threat. Biden is ... hmmm, I guess that analogy ran out of steam.

[Longtobefree]

D.C. public accommodation law - - - -
Better know as the lawyer's full employment act.

[tomhynes75]

It also bans discrimination based on "matriculation". No student discounts. Can Georgetown require a Georgetown ID to come into a campus building?

[Rev. O.T. Medal]

" I don't say this to praise DC law ..."

That sure sounds like a condemnation of DC law, or at least a deliberate invitation for others to criticize the law.

So for those inclined to criticize the law, here is a hypothetical. You make a reservation at a hot restaurant in town, dress in your best, and take a date. You arrive and the hostess says, in a loud clear voice, "I am sorry. We cannot honor your reservation because you are too fat (or too ugly) to eat here." In this situation, would you rather be in a town with something like the DC accomodations law or someplace where the law leaves you powerless to do anything other than whine on Yelp?

[SKofNJ]

Somewhere else.

[Krayt]

Those who wanna get their hate on for fat people are shifting memes from looking disgusting to costing money in government insirance programs. Unlike most stuff "new from America", this is coming here from the rest of the world.

[David Nieporent]

In this situation, would you rather be in a town with something like the DC accomodations law or someplace where the law leaves you powerless to do anything other than whine on Yelp?

The latter. Even setting aside the principle of liberty, why on earth would I want to give my money to a business that doesn't want me there?

[santamonica811]

David,
I take it you feel the same about blacks (Asians, Latinos, etc) and those anti-discrimination laws? Or the laws that protect gay people (or protect Jews, Christians, atheists, etc)? Same principle, after all.

Sometimes, "Well, then I'll just take my business and my money elsewhere." is just not an acceptable outcome. IMO only, of course...your mileage absolutely may vary, and that's no reflection on you.

[DaivdBehar]

I agree with David. In the absence of Jim Crows laws, the market is the natural to end discrimination. I would open a bakery with a big sign, gay Weddings Are Fabulous. If a third of a state are black, go ahead and exclude them from your restaurant. I will gladly feed them in mine.

[Ed Grinberg]

I take it you feel the same about blacks (Asians, Latinos, etc) and those anti-discrimination laws? Or the laws that protect gay people (or protect Jews, Christians, atheists, etc)? Same principle, after all.

Yes, 100%.

[David Nieporent]

I take it you feel the same about blacks (Asians, Latinos, etc) and those anti-discrimination laws? Or the laws that protect gay people (or protect Jews, Christians, atheists, etc)? Same principle, after all.

I do indeed. I find "You neo-Nazis hate me, so I am going to demand that I be allowed to give you my money" to be a bizarre position to take.

(At least in the modern world; it was understandable in the case of Jim Crow, in which taking one's business elsewhere might not even have been possible, because discrimination was so widespread and pervasive. But while a few of us are old enough to have lived in that world, most of us are not, and that world never applied to most of the groups currently protected by antidiscrimination law.)

[Ed Grinberg]

I'd rather be in a jurisdiction that where the law leaves me free to associate with whoever I like, based on whatever criteria I choose.

[shawn_dude]

Ah yes, the core of the Jim Crow laws. Those were the good 'ol days when Americans could proudly not associate with whomever they didn't want to associate with at every level of social interaction, including necessary community services. Nothing says "enlightened society" like a paramedic refusing to help an injured person because they prefer no to associate with them.

(I know the subject of this article is just physical appearance, but many commenters have generalized this beyond clothing.)

[Milhouse]

Um, no, that's the very opposite of the Jim Crow laws. The whole point of Jim Crow laws was to deny people the freedom to associate with whomever they liked. But instead of simply abolishing them, they were replaced with laws that do that exact same thing in the opposite direction. Morally there's no difference between them.

[David Nieporent]

Nothing says “enlightened society” like a paramedic refusing to help an injured person because they prefer no to associate with them.

Paramedics are generally government employees (or quasi-such, as there are volunteer paramedics in some places). Government, of course, should not be allowed to refuse service based on any irrelevant characteristic. But that's separate from the issue of private businesses.

[mydisplayname]

I'll note that during Mid-Atlantic Leather (MAL) Weekend the city enforces the requirement "[w]hen leaving the hotel, you must have at least a 1 inch strap covering your ass-crack." And a person not actively drinking in a strip club -- including a fully-nude dancer embracing a pole between her [NB: to the best of my knowledge, the last legal fully-nude male strip club in DC has closed] legs -- must wear a mouth/nose mask.

More seriously, two years ago a friend and I entered a DC bar at which I typically receive excellent service. After waiting more than five minutes [gasp!] for a table, my friend said "Look around you, now look at me." After I remarked that she could have dressed better [and after being smacked for saying that], she asked "Do you notice anything here?" Frankly, I didn't notice anything unusual... until she said "I'm the only non-white person here." The DC public accommodation law may have many facets yet none truly shine.

[John F. Carr]

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts once had to decide how narrow a thong could be before a man could be convicted of indecency. The answer was, wider than your client was wearing but we're making our decision prospective only.

[Milhouse]

Your friend assumed that the difference she pointed out between her and the rest of the crowd was the reason you weren't getting served, but that's only an assumption. You didn't notice that difference till she pointed it out, so who's to say the staff noticed it either? Maybe it really was because her clothes weren't fancy enough, or some other equally stupid reason that wasn't the one she was sure it was. Neither of you are mind-readers, and people are too quick to jump to that assumption when often it isn't true.

[Beldar]

The original, and better, version of the quote — which appears to date back to at least 1991, in a Dallas Morning News quotation of Texas political consultant Bill Miller, prior to its appropriation by Paul Begala and Jay Leno — is:

"Politics is show business for ugly people."

Not all politics is practiced in Washington, nor are all beautiful people in Hollywood. The need to make inferences about those two places weakens the phrase, IMHO.

[Beldar]

I do give Begala credit for another notable quote, regarding Executive Orders:

"Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool."

Of course, that was a lie then and now. But Begala was peddling it while he was a top White House advisor in the Clinton Administration, who like many presidents before and since was frustrated by a Congress that didn't always give him the statutory authority he wanted and thought he was entitled to. Executive orders, of course, are issued by the POTUS to the Executive Branch; their legality depends on underlying statutory authorization, if and to the extent such exists; and sometimes they are invalidated by courts on grounds that they've exceeded presidential authority.

[Darth Buckeye]

Well, if it's a Dem president, an Executive Order becomes the irrevocable law of the land. If it's a Rep president, then the Executive Order is just a weak suggestion that can safely be ignored.

[Lee Moore]

On the other hand, since "Washington is Hollywood for ugly people,"

Cripes !

If Hollywood's got Harvey Weinstein what the hell has DC got ?

[jdgalt1]

Rashida Tlaib. Who is a great argument for mandatory face masking.

[Milhouse]

Well, it had Dodd and Kennedy...

[DaveM]

Some DC pol must've gotten mad that an actor got to jump the line at the Rose Bar Lounge, and decided to take revenge. As they say, "all politics are local." Nice little liquor license you got there. Shame if anything were to happen to it.

[Cal Cetín]

I don't want to be around ugly people. I saw an ugly person the other day, and "I stretched out my fingers to the abomination within that great gilded frame; stretched out my fingers and touched a cold and unyielding surface of polished glass."

https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/o.aspx

[DaveM]

+1

[Cal Cetín]

Hey, there, all you beautiful people:

https://i.redd.it/1vict0rssxbx.jpg

[Eugene Volokh]

The Latin version is apparently "hodie mihi, cras tibi."

[jdgalt1]

I suspect that no one has ever sued to enforce this law, because it would make for great stories.

[CharlieMack]

As we use to say, “Beauty’s only skin deep, but UGLY’s clear down to the bone”.

[Darth Buckeye]

Lawmakers and senior staff will be unhappy when the number of hot girls in these bars and nightclubs goes down.