A deterrent to other towns & clubs that if you behave badly, you will pay
Thirty-five years after Billie Jean King -- Elaine Joyce
Elaine Joyce at the Dennis Pines Golf Course. Image courtesy of Polaris Public Relations.By Jeff Blanchard
With unspecified damages sought from the town of Dennis and several of its agents, local golfer Elaine Joyce is suing in federal court to have her way on the golf courses of Dennis and beyond.
"This isn't just about Dennis Pines or Dennis Highlands, and this isn't about money. I filed this suit to fix things for women." - Elaine Joyce"This isn't just about Dennis Pines or Dennis Highlands," said Joyce, 43, "and this isn't about money," she added. "I filed this lawsuit to fix things for women who have been discriminated against for a long time. By making an example out of Dennis, I hope the action serves as a deterent to other towns and other clubs that if you behave badly there is a price to pay, and it's a hefty price."
"About 20 people who work for the town of Dennis from the town administrator to the golf commission to the golf director and the pro, they all got it wrong," Joyce said, despite her having met personally with several of them in an attempt to iron things at the course, not the court.
The straw that broke this camel's back
The straw that broke the camel's back came last summer when she was not allowed to join her father as his partner in a men's tournament. This morning, I was directed by a town employee to consider that the town has changed its policy for this upcoming season, and now calls the tournament simply a member-member, gender neutral, and cites the USGA for its interpretation of what that means.
In any event, this new policy toward women, if that's what it is, does nothing to mollify Joyce, who is pursuing damages based on past conduct, not future behavior, and has named the town administrator and all the top golf officials past and present who had a hand in the decision last season to disallow her from playing in a men's tournament, and to segregate men and women in other realms of the tee-time and tournament system.
Her goal is to be able to freely associate with better talent as a basic tenet of all competitive athletesJoyce has the game for any league, as a 3-handicap, and says her goal is to be able to freely associate with better talent as a basic tenet of all competitive athletes.
A top woman's competitor
A software designer who is single and lives in Yarmouth Port, Joyce is a resident member of the Dennis municipal golf at Pines and Highland by dint of her trusteeship in a Dennis property. A graduate of Dennis-Yarmouth High, same as LPGA great Sally Quinlan, Golfweek editor Jeff Babineau and Brad Eaton (see above), Joyce has a few Top 5 finishes in WGAM events and roughly 20 club championships between Dennis and the courses of Yarmouth, Bayberry Hills and Bass River especially.
Not her first turf war
Ten years ago, Joyce said she fought a similar battle in Yarmouth over her ability to play with the block-tee-time blessed Forty Thieves. Not only could she not, they determined in a 39-1 vote, they changed their name to the Forty Thieves Men's League.
Then, however, she took her battle to Town Hall and convinced the town counsel and town administrator in Yarmouth that women deserved access to more or less whatever they wanted if the alternative is to discriminate against them just because they are women.
"But the people in Dennis ignored the example set by Yarmouth and that's why the issue must be forced, not just for these towns and clubs on the Cape, but everywhere," said Karen Schwartzman, a public relations specialist working for the lawyers who filed suit in Boston.
Thirty-five years after Billie Jean King - Elaine Joyce
Thirty-five years after Billie Jean King showed the world what a chauvinist pig that Bobby Riggs was, Elaine Joyce has taken the baton. Stay tuned. This could get interesting.
The filed complaint in its entirety is available in PDF form here.
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Below is the release from the attorney's PR firm;
TOWN OF DENNIS, TOWN GOLF COURSE ADMINISTRATORS FACE FEDERAL LAWSUIT
ALLEGING SEX DISCRIMINATION
Plaintiff Claims Men-only Tournaments Violate Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution and the Commonwealth's Public Accommodation Statute
February 18, 2008 - Boston, MA - In a complaint filed this past Friday in US District Court, Town of Yarmouth (Cape Cod) resident Elaine Joyce alleges that the Town of Dennis, through the actions of the administrators of its two public golf courses, discriminated against her on the basis of sex, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Commonwealth's public accommodation statute (M.G.L.ch.272, §§ 92A and 98).
The complaint arises from a decision by Town administrators made in the spring of 2007, denying Ms. Joyce the right to play in a particular golf tournament held at Dennis Pines Golf Course, where she is a member, solely because she is a woman. Ms. Joyce (43), an avid, three-handicap golfer, had signed up with her father to compete in a "mens member-member tournament" but, through a message delivered only to her father, was told that she could not play and that if her father still chose to play, he would have to find a male partner. Thereafter - and to this day -- despite requests to re-visit and change the policy - and despite notice that a policy that denies women the right to play in a golf tournament in a place of public accommodation - solely on the basis of gender -- violates the law, the Town has held firm in its commitment to holding tournaments that welcome men only.
"The Town of Dennis has made it clear that they seek to perpetuate an ‘historic custom' of offering ‘men only' golf tournaments," said Laura R. Studen of the law firm Burns & Levinson, representing Joyce. "Perhaps they view this as a frivolous exercise - suggesting as they do that the slight is easily addressed by offering women-only tournaments as well. They miss the point.
"Though the activity giving rise to my client's complaint is the game of golf, denying Ms. Joyce her Constitutionally-protected rights to enjoy the same rights as a man at a public golf course is as unlawful and degrading as the once ‘historic custom' of men's-only bars or of white's-only drinking fountains - practices which only served to perpetuate the social and economic inferiority of a class of people and couldn't be rationalized by any legal standard," Studen continued.
"Elaine Joyce is entitled to the equal opportunity to aspire, to achieve, and to participate based upon her individual talents and capacities regardless of her gender. She seeks no special accommodation - but instead, only the opportunity to play her sport at her level and competitively with other club members who are equally strong and equally competitive. Because she is such an accomplished golfer, at Dennis Pines, almost all of those who play equally or better than she - are men."
Ms. Joyce has brought suit against The Town of Dennis; Dennis Pines Golf Course; Dennis Highlands Golf Course; Town Administrator Robert Canevazzi; then Dennis Director of Golf Dennis Penner; Director of Golf and Head Golf Course Superintendent Michael Cummings; and Dennis PGA Head Golf Professional Russell Champoux.
"The Town's refusal to correct this historically discriminatory practice -- which makes women second-class citizens on their public golf courses -- is sadly all too common," said Joyce. "While I've never gotten to the point of suing anyone before, this kind of discrimination is not new to me.
"This is about a lot more than golf," Joyce continued. "It's about stopping once and for all discriminatory practices that are clearly illegal and prevent women from fully participating and reaping all of the social and economic benefits that come with full participation."
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