From jack@_nospam_apex.net Thu Apr 29 00:46:39 1999 Date: 22 Apr 1997 03:57:23 GMT From: Jack Newsgroups: alt.gothic Subject: Re: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FREEDOM OF THIS SCENE? The Mad Scribbler wrote in article <335c1ff0.6911150@news.inc.net>... > klaatu wrote: > > >For instance, no club could legitimately prohibit vampires, > >although they could legitimately prohibit acts of vampirism, however > >those might be defined. Nor could you prohibit space-aliens from that > >club, although you could prohibit them from stealing cattle organs or > >implanting people (or whatever) within that club. > > BEEEEEEEEP! Sorry. Wrong answer. You don't win the Grand Prize of > Legalities for that one! > What the law says is that the *STATE* can not make laws that abridge > the rights of people without due process. If a *PRIVATE CITIZEN* owns > a club and says that Vampires and Space Aliens aren't allowed within > the confines, that's his/her business and no one can tell him/her > differently. Simple as that. > > Now, if the club were sponsored by a state run organization, that > would be a different story. But you see, the are laws against discrimination *by private citizens*, in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodation, (Like a club.) against members of a recognized minority group. This means that you'd be violating the law in refusing entry to space aliens, because they're foreigners, which falls quite clearly into the "recognized minority" category. Of course, if they don't have proper documentation, you could call the INS on them. (Of course, having them deported might be costly.) Vampires on the other hand, are *not* a recognized minority, and thus may be kept out. This could be argued around however, if they care to assert that you're actually discriminating against them for reasons other than their vampirism. If the vampire in question is from Trannsylvania for instance, then they'd be of foreign descent, or an immigrant, which are both protected categories. Or if they've been a vampire for a few hundred year, they could argue that you're discriminating against them because of their age. Finally, vampires could petition to be recognized as being disabled, on the grounds that bursting into flames upon exposure to sunlight is a genuine disability. If this went through, you would just be asking for a lawsuit by having a "no-vampyres" policy. Hope this cleared a few things up.