Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) denied Wednesday that he is a member of an exclusive Newport beach club accused of only admitting white people and insisted that the organization does have “non-white members.”
Bailey’s Beach Club, also known as the Spouting Rock Beach Association, was accused by Rhode Island website GoLocalProv of only accepting white people as members. A reporter with the site asked Whitehouse in 2017 whether he would pressure the club to change the alleged policy. “I will take that up privately,” Whitehouse said at the time. Whitehouse has stated that he has “no membership to resign” when it came to Bailey’s Beach Club; however, he did note that he belongs to a local sailing club that “does lack diversity.”
“Failing to address the sailing club’s lack of diversity is squarely on me, and something for which I am sorry,” the senator said. “I commit to working with the club and the community to build a more inclusive membership and to better connect with the local community.” Continuing, he said “I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and I’m sorry it hasn’t happened yet.” The reporter then characterized the club as “all-white” before asking Whitehouse: “Should these clubs continue to exist?” “It’s a long tradition in Rhode Island and there are many of them,” Whitehouse answered without challenging the reporter’s description. “We just need to work our way through the issues.”
