The following letter from Paul Steinberg is for your consideration...
To the editor:
If I go into a Croton business to buy a cup of coffee and bagel, both federal and state laws protect me against discrimination. At the federal level, those protections are codified in law. No matter how determined Donald Trump may be to deny persons of color their morning cappuccino, he is bound by statute.
Federal civil rights law covers race, color, and national origin. A separate federal law covers disability. Many states have state laws which are broader than the federal statutes—both in the breadth of protected characteristics and the range of venues.
New York anti-discrimination law is extraordinarily broad, with 9 enumerated characteristics including gender identity/expression, marital status, sex, and sexual orientation. A twice-divorced transgender non-binary female veteran migrant from Afghanistan can stop in to a Croton coffee shop and get zir bagel on the way to the Croton Wiccan Church of Scientology. If anyone at the bagel shop denies service based on any of those characteristics, the Attorney General of the State of New York can bring legal action.
I doubt anyone in Croton objects to the NY law preventing discrimination. And even if anyone did, they cannot say so because it is an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person to aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce the doing of any acts forbidden under the anti-discrimination law. Nor can anyone choose to refuse to purchase from any person because of a protected characteristic.
As the NY statute is written, if Donald Trump visited Croton and walked past one coffee shop to the next one because he didn’t want to buy cappuccino from the lesbian barista at the first coffee shop, he is in violation of NY law. Even if he simply participated in an ongoing boycott initiated by someone else, he would be in violation of law.
Some of these examples are far-fetched, but they illustrate the fact that as a matter of law Croton places of public accommodation may not discriminate. Since state law is far more broad than federal law, Croton residents should be looking to Letitia James—not Donald Trump—to allay fears of an outbreak of fascist racism in the shops of Croton. Our Attorney General has her faults, but ignoring discrimination is not one of them.
It is meaningless virtue-signaling to proclaim that “Croton Welcomes Everyone.” For the reasons above, even a business that does not wish to be welcoming is compelled by law to do so. It would be nice if people did not discriminate because it is the decent thing to do. But even racists are bound to refrain from discrimination under penalty of government action.
The distinction between taking an action (or refraining from taking an action) due to your moral compass versus state compulsion is a critical one. Croton Pride is a private group, and if it wishes to offer window clings for businesses to display they have every right to do so (with one exception which I will discuss below). But the private citizens of the Croton IDEA committee are appointed by the Mayor of Croton and are under the watchful eye of the Board of Trustees. When those citizens act in their official capacity as an arm of the municipality, their actions are state actions.
The committee is proposing that local businesses be offered a window sticker. [Trigger Warning: derogatory abelist term follows, which may be offensive to some readers] The logo has a stoplight (presumably a nod to Croton’s “dummy” light) done in hues echoing the Progress Pride flag. Below the light is the tagline “Croton Welcomes Everyone” and the website CoHWE.org. Notwithstanding the “.org” domain, the address redirects to the official Village of Croton-on-Hudson site.
Ostensibly the meaning of the sticker display is that “Locations displaying this symbol pledge to welcome people of all experiences and identities.” Even without displaying the symbol, discrimination in New York is illegal. There was one instance a few years ago where a local conservative was asked to leave a Croton establishment: he was told it wasn’t because of any unlawful discrimination but rather because his presence made the staff “feel unsafe” and the manager said the business had a responsibility to keep its staff “safe.” Other than that, I have never heard of a single instance of someone being denied service based on a discriminatory basis.
When a mayoral appointee shows up at your business and “suggests” that you display a sign with a quasi-Pride logo, what are you going to do? As Seinfeld taught us: Everyone wears the ribbon. You must wear the ribbon! In the case of the rainbow stoplight logo, the municipality is being coy. This has nothing to do with Croton businesses saying they won’t discriminate. It is about the Village of Croton-on-Hudson compelling people to publicly proclaim their obeisance.
It is worth noting that New York law prohibits written materials that would “indicate” a denial of services based on protected characteristics. So if a private group offered a window sticker that said “Cisgender couples welcome” the business owner displaying that could be prosecuted on the basis that such language indicated a discriminatory animus to LGBTQIA2s+ customers.
Progress Pride logos are regarded differently but there are those who might perceive that an establishment displaying such logo is one in which they would feel “unsafe.” A private group such as Croton Pride may offer window stickers to businesses, but that is not what is being proposed by the Croton IDEA committee.
It is fine for the municipality to do a program in conjunction with a private group, but the involvement of the municipality means that this should be evaluated as action taken by the municipality. As the program of a governmental body, there is no reason the sticker program is using a “.org” address, particularly when the address merely redirects to the official “.gov” site.
As the Croton Board of Trustees implements this window sticker program, I am sure that almost every business will agree to put up the sticker regardless of their personal desire to speak. That is not a criticism; if I had a Croton business and someone representing the village came around and “suggested” that I put up a rainbow logo sticker I would do so without argument. Freedom of expression doesn’t pay the mortgage.
There was a time when displaying a rainbow sticker in your shop window would have been an act of courage. The late 80s “ACT UP” sticker on a business window was an incendiary act in a way that today’s rainbow pride dummy light sticker is not. I am old enough to remember the government-sanctioned discrimination of that time, and grateful that we have gotten to the point where the government is pushing people to put up rainbow stickers.
I vehemently object to government compulsion, but I am glad that we live in a more inclusive environment than when I was growing up and grateful to all those folks (many no longer with us) who fought to bring us where we are. Inclusivity does not mean that we need to obsess over whatever immutable characteristic makes us different: not everything is about the rainbow.
My generation obsessed because such matters were literally a matter of life or death. Now we obsess because it gives us an excuse to bash Trump. Putting up a rainbow sticker in Croton nowadays is not courageous. It is reflexive performance art morphing into government-compelled speech when the Mayor’s committee shows up at your store.
The new outside counsel for Croton has expressed concern about the stickers. Apparently the new lawyers read the Constitution, and that is a welcome change from Linda Whitehead. That being said, I doubt any business owner would jeopardize their business by speaking out against the compelled speech, let alone sue the village. My practical concern is not for taxpayer liability but rather the tenor of our public spaces.
The Board of Trustees is composed of partisan politicians. The IDEA members are appointed by a partisan politician. That is the system we have, and there is nothing wrong with being partisan. But sometimes it is nice to get a cup of coffee and bagel without having to think about politics. At least not till after breakfast.
--Paul Steinberg, Croton-on-Hudson
If I go into a Croton business to buy a cup of coffee and bagel, both federal and state laws protect me against discrimination. At the federal level, those protections are codified in law. No matter how determined Donald Trump may be to deny persons of color their morning cappuccino, he is bound by statute.
Federal civil rights law covers race, color, and national origin. A separate federal law covers disability. Many states have state laws which are broader than the federal statutes—both in the breadth of protected characteristics and the range of venues.
New York anti-discrimination law is extraordinarily broad, with 9 enumerated characteristics including gender identity/expression, marital status, sex, and sexual orientation. A twice-divorced transgender non-binary female veteran migrant from Afghanistan can stop in to a Croton coffee shop and get zir bagel on the way to the Croton Wiccan Church of Scientology. If anyone at the bagel shop denies service based on any of those characteristics, the Attorney General of the State of New York can bring legal action.
I doubt anyone in Croton objects to the NY law preventing discrimination. And even if anyone did, they cannot say so because it is an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person to aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce the doing of any acts forbidden under the anti-discrimination law. Nor can anyone choose to refuse to purchase from any person because of a protected characteristic.
As the NY statute is written, if Donald Trump visited Croton and walked past one coffee shop to the next one because he didn’t want to buy cappuccino from the lesbian barista at the first coffee shop, he is in violation of NY law. Even if he simply participated in an ongoing boycott initiated by someone else, he would be in violation of law.
Some of these examples are far-fetched, but they illustrate the fact that as a matter of law Croton places of public accommodation may not discriminate. Since state law is far more broad than federal law, Croton residents should be looking to Letitia James—not Donald Trump—to allay fears of an outbreak of fascist racism in the shops of Croton. Our Attorney General has her faults, but ignoring discrimination is not one of them.
It is meaningless virtue-signaling to proclaim that “Croton Welcomes Everyone.” For the reasons above, even a business that does not wish to be welcoming is compelled by law to do so. It would be nice if people did not discriminate because it is the decent thing to do. But even racists are bound to refrain from discrimination under penalty of government action.
The distinction between taking an action (or refraining from taking an action) due to your moral compass versus state compulsion is a critical one. Croton Pride is a private group, and if it wishes to offer window clings for businesses to display they have every right to do so (with one exception which I will discuss below). But the private citizens of the Croton IDEA committee are appointed by the Mayor of Croton and are under the watchful eye of the Board of Trustees. When those citizens act in their official capacity as an arm of the municipality, their actions are state actions.
The committee is proposing that local businesses be offered a window sticker. [Trigger Warning: derogatory abelist term follows, which may be offensive to some readers] The logo has a stoplight (presumably a nod to Croton’s “dummy” light) done in hues echoing the Progress Pride flag. Below the light is the tagline “Croton Welcomes Everyone” and the website CoHWE.org. Notwithstanding the “.org” domain, the address redirects to the official Village of Croton-on-Hudson site.
Ostensibly the meaning of the sticker display is that “Locations displaying this symbol pledge to welcome people of all experiences and identities.” Even without displaying the symbol, discrimination in New York is illegal. There was one instance a few years ago where a local conservative was asked to leave a Croton establishment: he was told it wasn’t because of any unlawful discrimination but rather because his presence made the staff “feel unsafe” and the manager said the business had a responsibility to keep its staff “safe.” Other than that, I have never heard of a single instance of someone being denied service based on a discriminatory basis.
When a mayoral appointee shows up at your business and “suggests” that you display a sign with a quasi-Pride logo, what are you going to do? As Seinfeld taught us: Everyone wears the ribbon. You must wear the ribbon! In the case of the rainbow stoplight logo, the municipality is being coy. This has nothing to do with Croton businesses saying they won’t discriminate. It is about the Village of Croton-on-Hudson compelling people to publicly proclaim their obeisance.
It is worth noting that New York law prohibits written materials that would “indicate” a denial of services based on protected characteristics. So if a private group offered a window sticker that said “Cisgender couples welcome” the business owner displaying that could be prosecuted on the basis that such language indicated a discriminatory animus to LGBTQIA2s+ customers.
Progress Pride logos are regarded differently but there are those who might perceive that an establishment displaying such logo is one in which they would feel “unsafe.” A private group such as Croton Pride may offer window stickers to businesses, but that is not what is being proposed by the Croton IDEA committee.
It is fine for the municipality to do a program in conjunction with a private group, but the involvement of the municipality means that this should be evaluated as action taken by the municipality. As the program of a governmental body, there is no reason the sticker program is using a “.org” address, particularly when the address merely redirects to the official “.gov” site.
As the Croton Board of Trustees implements this window sticker program, I am sure that almost every business will agree to put up the sticker regardless of their personal desire to speak. That is not a criticism; if I had a Croton business and someone representing the village came around and “suggested” that I put up a rainbow logo sticker I would do so without argument. Freedom of expression doesn’t pay the mortgage.
There was a time when displaying a rainbow sticker in your shop window would have been an act of courage. The late 80s “ACT UP” sticker on a business window was an incendiary act in a way that today’s rainbow pride dummy light sticker is not. I am old enough to remember the government-sanctioned discrimination of that time, and grateful that we have gotten to the point where the government is pushing people to put up rainbow stickers.
I vehemently object to government compulsion, but I am glad that we live in a more inclusive environment than when I was growing up and grateful to all those folks (many no longer with us) who fought to bring us where we are. Inclusivity does not mean that we need to obsess over whatever immutable characteristic makes us different: not everything is about the rainbow.
My generation obsessed because such matters were literally a matter of life or death. Now we obsess because it gives us an excuse to bash Trump. Putting up a rainbow sticker in Croton nowadays is not courageous. It is reflexive performance art morphing into government-compelled speech when the Mayor’s committee shows up at your store.
The new outside counsel for Croton has expressed concern about the stickers. Apparently the new lawyers read the Constitution, and that is a welcome change from Linda Whitehead. That being said, I doubt any business owner would jeopardize their business by speaking out against the compelled speech, let alone sue the village. My practical concern is not for taxpayer liability but rather the tenor of our public spaces.
The Board of Trustees is composed of partisan politicians. The IDEA members are appointed by a partisan politician. That is the system we have, and there is nothing wrong with being partisan. But sometimes it is nice to get a cup of coffee and bagel without having to think about politics. At least not till after breakfast.
--Paul Steinberg, Croton-on-Hudson
We don't go into places with the rainbows, and my brother-in-law is gay. We don't like performance displays and neither does he. Besides, he and his partner wants a divorce from the Q's and the T's and "crazy liberal croton women who think they are our champions".
ReplyDeleteThank you, Paul. We stopped doing a lot here because we were apparently expected to "represent". I'd like to think we're more than the sum of our parts and who we choose to share them with. In Croton, there seems to be an un-natural fixation especially among women.
ReplyDeleteWhat authority do the village committee have? Who or what body oversees them? Who is ultimately responsible for committee actions? The Trustees? The mayor? Very confusing to have appointees with authority but no visible responsibility.
ReplyDelete