The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed Wednesday that a Portland bar owner must pay about $400,000 in damages to transgender patrons he asked to stay away.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries investigated a bar formerly known as the P Club after the owner left phone messages for one of the so-called "Rose City T-Girls."
That’s a group of transgender customers who frequented the bar on Friday nights.
The owner asked them to stop visiting because business was down on Fridays and he didn’t want the P Club to be known as a “tranny bar.”
State labor commissioner Brad Avakian said he is pleased with the finding.
“Everybody’s got the right to go to a restaurant or a bar or a store, free from discrimination,” he said.
During interviews with P Club employees and patrons, investigators found no evidence the T-Girls disrupted business.
The state ruled in 2013 that the bar violated discrimination laws. The appeals court just upheld that decision.
Copyright 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting
