Two Women Barred From Strip Joint Seek Ruling From Florida Supreme Court

Two women who were turned away at a Florida strip joint because they weren’t accompanied by a man are taking their case to the state’s highest court.

The women, Brittney Smith and Anita Yanes, claim they couldn’t get through the door at Rachel’s Orlando in 2018. They say they went to see a dancer they’d heard looked like Yanes, but were denied entry due to a club rule they say violated their civil rights.

“We do believe that this issue is so important,” their attorney, Matthew Dietz, told the Orlando Sentinel. “We’re living in a time when these rights are being constricted.”

2 #Florida women who were denied entry to a strip club because they didn’t have a man with them say they will take their case to the FL Supreme Court — again. https://t.co/OSHYBle9T4 via @martinecomas

— Craig Pittman (@craigtimes) May 9, 2022

The legal question, according to Dietz, is whether local governments can enact anti-discrimination ordinances that supersede the Florida Civil Rights Act. The Orange County human rights ordinance goes farther than the state law, and would have nixed the club rule. But the state’s Fifth District Court of Appeal on Friday refused to rehear the case following its ruling last March that local law was unconstitutional because it is preempted by the state law.

Dietz believes the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in 2020, will take it this time because the appeals judge acknowledged that that the issue of whether local governments are allowed to enact ordinances that go beyond state law is “one of great public importance.”

“The case is going to move forward, and the Florida Supreme Court is going to decide whether the Florida Civil Rights Act preempts local anti-discrimination ordinances,” Dietz said. “For the past 50 years, counties and municipalities in Florida have been passing anti-discrimination ordinances that protect the citizens in their counties and cities. … Until today, those ordinances have been valid.”

Rachel’s claims the policy is in place to deter prostitution and prevent domestic incidents. The encounter between Smith and Yanes and the club manager was caught on video.

“It’s club rules. It’s club policy. That’s all,” the manager told the women. ”We’ve had wives come in here and try to get their husbands out of here.”

They sued, claiming the policy violated the county ordinance’s protections against gender and sexual orientation discrimination. The state Civil Rights Act bans discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations, but offers no specific protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.

The judge in the initial case first sided with Rachel’s, holding that the state law trumped the local ordinance. But the Fifth District Court of Appeal sent the case back to circuit court, saying Orange County should have been made part of the suit. Last year, the lower court judge ruled the two laws did not conflict, which Rachel’s appealed and won when the Fifth Circuit declared the Orange County ordinance partially unconstitutional.

Ironically, Rachel’s has since changed its policy and allows unaccompanied women to come in and watch strippers perform.

“Steve Mason, an Altamonte Springs attorney representing Rachel’s, said Orange County overstepped its authority because local governments cannot enact ordinances that conflict with state laws. He said he looks forward to arguing the case before the Supreme Court,” the Sentinel reported.

“These people are zealots and they are extremists,” Rachel’s attorney, Steve Mason, told the Sentinel, referring to Orange County lawmakers who passed the broader ordinance. “I cannot wait to go to Tallahassee because I am going to rip into them.”

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