NEW YORK—The U.S. Justice Department is punishing a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, Queens for discriminating against Falun Gong practitioners who wanted to eat there.
On three separate occasions in 2008, servers at the Lucky Joy Restaurant forced 10 patrons, including an eight-year-old girl, to leave because members of their parties wore shirts displaying the tenets of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,” in English and Chinese, according to an investigation conducted jointly by the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“It’s disgraceful that a person would be refused service in a restaurant for doing nothing more than exercising their right to wear clothing with a religious message,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, in a statement released on Thursday.
“The Justice Department will continue to vigorously protect the rights of persons of all faiths to be free from discrimination in Flushing and across the country.”
On three separate occasions in 2008, servers at the Lucky Joy Restaurant forced 10 patrons, including an eight-year-old girl, to leave because members of their parties wore shirts displaying the tenets of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,” in English and Chinese, according to an investigation conducted jointly by the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“It’s disgraceful that a person would be refused service in a restaurant for doing nothing more than exercising their right to wear clothing with a religious message,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, in a statement released on Thursday.
“The Justice Department will continue to vigorously protect the rights of persons of all faiths to be free from discrimination in Flushing and across the country.”
