QUESTION
Can a membership organization hold a "closed" concurrent session during their annual conference?
Asked on Nov 08th, 2019 on Discrimination - New Jersey
More details to this question:
A professional membership association received a request to hold a closed concurrent session as a part of their annual conference. This session would only be open to paying conference attendees who identify as persons of color. A second session was requested for paying conference attendees who identify as LGBTQ+. We are hosting numerous other concurrent educational sessions on various diversity topics during the conference open to all paying attendees. We received a complaint that these two closed concurrent sessions may be in violation of the Public Accommodations law, citing that concurrent sessions must be open to all paying conference attendees. Is this the case or is it legal to hold a "closed" concurrent session for a protected group? Does holding on e of these "closed" sessions put the membership organization in legal jeopardy?
1 ANSWER
Criminal Defense Attorney serving Toms River, NJ
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Edward J. Dimon
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The organization would be well served to open the sessions to all attendees. This would avoid any issues with discrimination. I am not sure that this action rises to the level of actual discrimination. One would have to see what actually happened. Ed Dimon, Esq.
Answered on Nov 11th, 2019 at 7:38 AM