Chalk this win up for the ladies.
A Florida judge has ruled against an all-male nude resort in Florida. Orleans House, the very popular and very chic guesthouse in Key West, was just dealt a crushing loss from Florida Judge Brittany Finkbeiner.
Earlier this year Amina Chaudhry, 38, sued Orleans House and nearby Island House for discrimination. Chaudhry, who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community, and a cisgender woman, said, “The implication is if they’re allowed to discriminate against any genders they don’t want coming in there, then any other place of public accommodations can do the same thing.”
After the Florida Commission on Human Relations ruled against Chaudhry in February, she appealed the decision. Finkbeiner agreed with Chaudhry recommending that women should be granted the right to disrobe next to men. Orleans House does allow women to visit the resort, but they cannot access the clothing optional areas.
The commission is required to take the judge’s recommendations into consideration before making their final decision.
Chaudhry, who is also embroiled in another lawsuit with another all-male resort in Key West, said after the judge’s decision, “Living in Key West and going through all of this, there’s this just kind of pervasive sense that I was the one in the wrong. Like I was some kind of crazy lunatic who was going against the natural order of things.”
Joe Schroeder, owner of the Orleans House, speaking exclusively to OutSFL, is fired up with the latest ruling, asking “where is our right to privacy?”
He explained that “we are fighting for the right to be around other men, other naked men without being peered on by fully clothed women.”
Schroeder, angered at the loss, provided the needed separate but equal accommodations necessary.
The Orleans House compound also has another pool, where everyone is welcome and separate housing. The clothing optional area is only one part of Orleans House compound. Schroeder vows to take this to the next higher court and then the one after that promising, “Hopefully we will win this or else we will lose more than our mens only resorts. We will lose our safe spaces."
