Public accommodations.
Springfield, Ill., City Code § 93.12
in effect§ 93.12. - Public accommodations.
(a) Definitions.
(1) The following definitions are applicable strictly in the context of this section:
a. Place of public accommodation means a business, accommodation, refreshment, entertainment, recreation, or transportation facility of any kind, whether licensed or not, whose goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations are extended, offered, sold, or otherwise made available to the public.
b. By way of example, but not of limitation, "place of public accommodation" includes facilities of the following types: inns, restaurants, eating houses, hotels, soda shops, department stores, clothing stores, hat stores, shoe stores, bathrooms, restrooms, theaters, skating rinks, public golf courses, public golf driving ranges, concerts, cafes, bicycle rinks, elevators, ice cream parlors or rooms, railroads, omnibuses, buses, stages, airplanes, street cars, boats, funeral hearses, crematories, cemeteries, and public conveyances on land, water or air, public swimming pools and other places of public accommodation and amusement.
(2) Operator means any owner, lessee, proprietor, manager, superintendent, agent, or occupant of a place of public accommodation or an employee of any such person or persons.
(3) Public official means any officer or employee of the city or any agency thereof, including state political subdivisions, municipal corporations, park districts, forest preserve districts, educational institutions and schools.
(b) Civil rights violation—Public accommodations. It is a civil rights violation for any person on the basis of unlawful discrimination to:
(1) Deny or refuse to another the full and equal enjoyment of the facilities and services of any public place of accommodation;
(2) Directly or indirectly, as the operator of a place of public accommodation, publish, circulate, display or mail any written communication, except a private communication sent in response to a specific inquiry, which the operator knows is to the effect that any of the facilities of the place of public accommodations will be denied to any person or that any person is unwelcome, objectionable or unacceptable because of unlawful discrimination;
(3) Deny or refuse to another, as a public official, the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantage, facilities or privilege of the official's office or services or of any property under the official's care because of unlawful discrimination.
(c) Exemption.
(1) Exemption. Nothing in this section shall apply to:
a. A private club, or other establishment located on privately owned land that is not in fact open to the public, except to the extent that the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of the establishment are made available to the customers or patrons of another establishment that is a place of public accommodation.
b. Any facility, as to discrimination based on sex, which is distinctly private in nature such as restrooms, shower rooms, bath houses, health clubs and other similar facilities for which the commission, in its rules and regulations, may grant exemption based on bona fide considerations of public policy.
(Ord. No. 168-03-07, § 1(Exh. A), 3-20-07; Ord. No. 331-9-11, § 1(Exh. A), 9-16-11)
Source: City of Springfield, Illinois, Code of Ordinances (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/il/springfield/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TITIXGERE_CH93OFCORE_S93.12PUACFetched: 11/8/2026