From AvStop:

NCFM Rejects All Nippon Airways Women Only Bathrooms

All Nippon Airlines (ANA) announced ANA will designate women-only lavatories, presumably on flights between Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), California airports and international destinations.

All passengers, male and female, should be treated equally, said the National Coalition For Men (NCFM). The NCFM has respectfully asks that ANA not employ women-only bathrooms on flights to and from California airports.

"Men will be denied a lavatory because they are men though when necessary men will be allowed to ask permission from a flight attendant to use the women-only lavatory, which is gender-based discrimination, unequal treatment, and in violation of California law". Said Harry A. Crouch President NCFM.

"Advertising and providing women-only bathrooms, while denying male passengers equal men-only bathrooms, is as illegal and repugnant as providing only men-only bathrooms on ANA’s flights while denying female passengers women-only bathrooms. So is advertising and providing Caucasian-only bathrooms, but denying the same discount to customers of color. Or advertising and providing heterosexual- or Christian-only bathrooms. Simply put, it is against the law for a business in California – especially a business licensed by the State of California – to discriminate against consumers based on protected personal characteristics such as sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital status, or sexual orientation.

"The 2001 passage of Assembly Bill 587, which increased the civil penalty from $1,000 to $4,000 per offense for victims of sex discrimination, further exemplifies California’s strong public policy to eradicate sex discrimination. This law was passed specifically because businesses continued their Ladies’ Day and Ladies’ Night promotions despite the many statutory and case law prohibitions. The minimum statutory damages per offense were quadrupled because the California Attorney General, the sponsor of Assembly Bill 587, found that businesses were merely writing off the occasional statutory damages award of $1,000 as a cost of doing business.

"In the leading California case on sex-based business practices, the California Supreme Court in Koire v. Metro Car Wash (1985) 40 Cal.3d 24 unanimously held that sex-based business practices such as Ladies’ Days and Ladies’ Nights violated the Unruh Act. Koire ruled “the Legislature established that arbitrary sex discrimination by business is per se injurious” and “differential pricing based on sex may be generally detrimental to both men and women, because it reinforces harmful stereotypes.” Id. at 33. ANA’s women-only bathrooms perpetuate a host of harmful stereotypes and sets the equal rights movement back 100 years.

"Koire’s holding was upheld by the California Supreme Court in Angelucci v. Century Supper Club (2007) 41 Cal.4th 161, another “Ladies’ Night” case, wherein the Court unanimously ruled discrimination victims do not have to affirmatively assert their right to equal treatment in order to have a discrimination claim under the Unruh Act or Gender Tax Repeal Act. The National Coalition For Men filed an amicus brief in support of the prevailing appellants in Angelucci.

"All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital status, or sexual orientation are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever. California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, codified as California Civil Code section 51.

"Similarly, Civil Code section 51.5 mandates, No business establishment of any kind whatsoever shall discriminate against, boycott or blacklist, or refuse to buy from, contract with, sell to, or trade with any person in this state on account of any characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or (e) of Section 51.

"Civil Code section 51.6, Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995, provides, (b) No business establishment of any kind whatsoever may discriminate, with respect to the price charged for services of similar or like kind, against a person because of the person’s gender.

"Civil Code section 52 provides the remedies for violations of sections 51, 51.5, and 51.6. Whoever denies, aids or incites a denial, or makes any discrimination or distinction contrary to Section 51, 51.5, or 51.6, is liable for each and every offense for the actual damages, and any amount that may be determined by a jury, or a court sitting without a jury, up to a maximum of three times the amount of actual damage but in no case less than four thousand dollars ($4,000), and any attorneys’ fees that may be determined by the court in addition thereto….

"Pursuant to Civil Code section 52, ANA and any business that “aids” in any sex discrimination, such as Los Angeles World Airports and San Francisco International Airport, is liable for the actual damages and a minimum of $4,000 in mandatory statutory damages for each and every offense committed against all male passengers who were denied access to the women-only bathrooms on ANA flights to and from California. In addition, because California has such a strong public policy to eradicate sex discrimination, prevailing plaintiffs – and only prevailing plaintiffs – are entitled to their attorneys’ fees for any litigation concerning violations of the above Civil Code sections. See Engel v. Worthington, (1997) 60 Cal.App.4th 628 (attorneys’ fees are mandatory for prevailing plaintiffs in Unruh Act claims).

"Furthermore, the California Supreme Court’s recent Unruh Act opinion, North Coast Women’s Care Center v. San Diego Superior Court (2008) 44 Cal.4th 1145, held “liability under the act for denying a person the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services of a business establishment (§51, subd. (b)) extends beyond the business establishment itself to the business establishment’s employees responsible for the discriminatory conduct.” Therefore, principals or employees of ANA and the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports may be individually liable for the remedies provided by Civil Code section 52 for violations of sections 51, 51.5, and 51.6. Women-only bathrooms would violate Civil Code section 51.6, the Gender Tax Repeal Act, because women and men are presumably charged the same price to fly on ANA, but men would get less for their money by being denied access to the women-only bathrooms based on their sex.

The California Attorney General remains diligent in eradicating business practices that discriminate against consumers based on sex. For example, in response to the proliferation of ladies-only poker tournaments at California’s licensed card rooms, the Attorney General issued a January 18, 2008 Gambling Establishment Advisory, which reads, in part:

Under the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civil Code sections 51 and 51.5), businesses may not discriminate in admittance, prices, or services offered to customers based on the customers’ sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital status, or sexual orientation. “Ladies only” tournaments or any other promotional events that fail to admit men and women to advertised activities on an equal basis regardless of sex are unlawful. It may also be unlawful under the Unruh Act to advertise tournaments as “ladies only” even if men are in fact admitted.

The National Coalition For Men (NCFM) is the oldest men’s rights organization in America with members throughout the United States and in several other countries. NCFM