LGBTQ Club Sues City of Providence, Alleging Discrimination on Basis of Sexual Orientation

Tuesday, January 09, 2024

GoLocalProv News Team

 

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The City of Providence is facing a new federal lawsuit. Picture: Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. PHOTO: Smiley campaign

A club that “caters its business to members of the LGBTQ community” in Providence has sued the city in federal court, alleging that the establishment — and its customers — have been “unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation by Providence police.”

In a seven-page complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court, the operators of the Mega-Plex on Allens Avenue a “gay sauna [that] offers additional sexual health and wellness clinics and counseling” allege that “around February 2023, the [Providence Police Department] has engaged in a pattern and practice of harassment towards employees and customers of The Mega-Plex. 

“Upon information and belief, the PPD is engaged in a policy and practice of the City related to targeted enforcement at the Mega-Plex property and surrounding vicinity, and this area is specifically called out in police officer training of the PPD. It is known within the PPD that individuals/businesses located in the Mega-Plex area consist of various protected classes (such as race and sexual orientation), and officers are trained that this area is perhaps the easiest in the City to make arrests,” states the lawsuit. 

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Attorney Joseph Carnevale is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. 

The City of Providence did not respond to request for comment at time of publication. 


Allegations of Harassment 

According to the lawsuit, clients of the club were illegally searched — and followed — by Providence police under the premise of searching for drugs. 

The plaintiffs allege that on one date, customers were subjected to the following. 

"On July 11, 2023, PPD entered Plaintiffs’ private property into the parking area of the Property. PPD was searching and looking into windows of the cars situated in Plaintiffs’ parking lot. 

On this same date a customer of Mega-Plex exited the facility and drove towards the Burger King on Eddy Street. The customer was followed by PPD from the Mega-Plex parking lot, was pulled over, and the PPD attempted to search the customer’s vehicle because as the PPD put it “he was coming from a high drug area.” 

On this same date another customer was followed from Mega-Plex to the Providence train station by the PPD. Said customer was stopped, the PPD requested to search the customer, and the customer declined. 

Yet again on this same date another customer was followed from Mega-Plex to Wendy’s by the PPD, and the PPD pulled over and searched the customer’s vehicle. The customer was told by the PPD that they were searching his car 'because of where he came from.'"

The lawsuit goes on to list more than a dozen alleged incidents of police searches on the property and of vehicles leaving the area. 

The plaintiffs are suing on two counts — denial of equal protection in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and deprivation of plaintiffs’ civil rights. 

"The Fourteenth Amendment forbids Defendants from depriving Plaintiffs of the equal protection of the law and provides Plaintiffs with a clear established Constitutional right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in law enforcement by Police Officers," states the lawsuit. 

"Plaintiffs’ business catering to members of the LGBTQ community was a motivating factor in the decision of Defendants to trespass on Plaintiffs’ private property and to detain, interrogate, harass, arrest, and/or search Plaintiffs’ and Plaintiffs’ customers in violation of their Constitutional rights. Defendants’ actions had a discriminatory effect on Plaintiffs," allege the plaintiffs.

 

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