Our thanks to Douglas for this. The start of the piece:
In 2011, Ting Su, [J4MB: A woman, natch] the co-founder of Eagle Rock Brewery in Los Angeles, launched a monthly event for women interested in beer. The aim was to balance out the overwhelmingly male and white beer world, where, Su said, men often feel entitled to interject their own opinions when women customers asked women bartenders, like her, for recommendations. [J4MB: Oh no! On almost every occasion the men would know a damned sight more about beer than “women bartenders”, but clearly they’re just mean to shut the hell up to protect a special snowflake’s feelz.] The Women’s Beer Forum was a space where the women would outnumber the men while discussing craft beer, a rarity.
But in November 2017, as Su tells Eater, a man emailed Eagle Rock’s general information line asking for a spot at the ticketed forum. A staff member mistakenly told the man that the event was for women only (in fact, men have attended before), and even after he was offered access to a future women’s beer event, the man ultimately filed a discrimination claim through the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the entity in charge of enforcing California’s civil rights laws.
The man is Steve Frye, a men’s rights activist, or MRA, who is hardly a stranger to filing discrimination cases against California businesses and, at one point, Donald Trump. In 2011, Frye sued one of Trump’s golf courses because it offered a 25 percent discount to “ladies” for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
It’s just one of dozens of other lawsuits he’s filed for ladies’ night specials or deals for women. Men’s rights activists believe that society is actually sexist against men, and Frye has perfected the subculture’s favorite way to target what they see as a society that is sexist against men: suing businesses and organizations that incentivize women to go there.
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