Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities v. Edge Fitness, LLC

Citations

• 342 Conn. 25

Syllabus

Pursuant to the Public Accommodation Act (§ 46a-64 (a)), ''[i]t shall be a discriminatory practice . . . [t]o deny any person within the jurisdiction of this state full and equal accommodations in any place of public 26 FEBRUARY, 2022 342 Conn. 25 Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities v. Edge Fitness, LLC accommodation . . . because of . . . sex . . . [or] to discriminate, segregate or separate on account of . . . sex . . . .'' Pursuant further to that act (§ 46a-64 (b) (1)), the provisions of § 46a-64 prohibiting sex discrimination ''shall not apply to . . . separate bath- rooms or locker rooms based on sex.'' The plaintiff, the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, appealed to the trial court from the decision of the commission's human rights referee, who found that the defendants, E Co. and C Co., had not engaged in discriminatory public accommodations practices by providing sepa- rate women's only workout areas in their otherwise public fitness facili- ties. The complainants, two members of the defendants' respective gyms who both identified as male, filed complaints with the commission after they experienced delays in completing their workouts because they had to wait for other members to finish using the equipment in the coed portions of the facilities. The human rights referee concluded that the defendants did not violate § 46a-64 by maintaining women's only work- out areas and dismissed their complaints. On appeal to the trial court, that court recognized that a women's only workout area is neither a bathroom nor a locker room but nonetheless concluded that the defen- dants' provision of such areas did not violate the sex discrimination provisions of the Public Accommodation Act because there was an implied customer gender privacy exception encompassed within § 46a- 64 (b) (1). In so concluding, the court considered the privacy interests underlying the bathroom and locker room exceptions, as well as the burden that the elimination of women's onl