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Gay Nude Resort Must Allow Women, Judge Declares
Gay Nude Resort Must Allow Women, Judge Declares
People identifying as women should be allowed to rent rooms and patronize the clothing-optional areas of a Key West resort, a judge recently ruled.
A clothing-optional Florida resort catering to gay and bisexual men must open all areas to women, according to a June 30 ruling from a judge on the Florida Commission on Human Relations and reported by Metroweekly.
The decision — which overruled a previous ruling stating the resort did not discriminate — affects Key West's New Orleans House, though it's not binding until the full commission weighs in. The resort is one of at least two nude resorts challenged by Amita Chaudhry, a 38-year-old cisgender woman who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Chaudhry also filed a complaint against Key West's Island House resort, claiming she wasn't allowed to rent a room there because she doesn't identify as male. Island House attorneys dispute that, saying Chaudhry attended a 2022 Pride party at the resort and was disruptive. Chaudhry allegedly left fliers around the resort saying it discriminated against women and then told staff she planned to sue the resort.
“I felt affronted by the fact that there was someone who was invited to the space and enjoying it, but while passing out literature to the detriment of our property and aggravating our guests,” Island House owner Bobi Lore said in an administrative hearing in the spring. “We eventually had the police escort her off the property.”
Chaudhry later returned to the property and asked to rent a room, but was told the resort was fully booked. The status of Chaudhry's complaint against Island House is not clear.
Both Island House and New Orleans House have areas open to women, but restrict clothing-optional areas to men; Island House also allows female guests to stay at an adjacent guest house and utilize a nearby gym. A New Orleans House attorney said the judge's ruling siding with Chaudhry trampled on the rights of male guests of the resort who wish to only be naked around other men.
For her part, Chaudhry told Metroweekly, “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.”
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