Here in California, any place with a liquor license has MANY more regulations to put up with than another kind of business - far in excess of the ones you would expect covering the selling of alcoholic beverages. Some of them involve who one can and cannot refuse entry to, and here one cannot refuse entry based on gender. There are some limits on dress codes I'm not sure of - and even those can't trump certain things - if it's a leather night and a woman shows up in the appropriate clothing, she has to be let in. (Of course, I'd rather have Lynn Lavner around than some gay men...!)