Task Force to Study Bias at Private Clubs
City Attorney James K. Hahn on Thursday announced a citizens’ task force will be appointed to study the issue of discrimination by private clubs in Los Angeles.
The task force, which will be headed by local attorney and feminist activist Gloria Allred, will hold hearings to determine if the city’s ordinance forbidding discrimination in membership practices at private clubs is being followed.
Noting the increasingly significant role played by women and minorities in the business community, Hahn said that clubs “cannot wall themselves off from the laws that govern everybody else.” Hahn has filed two lawsuits under the 1987 ordinance, one against Brentwood Country Club and another against the Jonathan Club.
The action against Brentwood was settled when the club agreed to open its grill to women and change its golfing rules, which favored men. The other suit, which alleges that the Jonathan Club forbids women in its bar and grill, is awaiting trial.
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