The following appeared September 23 on the Volokh.com website.
According to the Complaint, Plaintiff rented a car from AVIS in July 2011, in the County of San Diego, California. She was charged $311.36. According to the Complaint, at that time AVIS gave large price discounts to members of two groups: the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Plaintiff is not a member of either group. The Complaint further alleges that AVIS did not give her the gay and lesbian group member price discount. Plaintiff alleges that California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act … prohibits a business from discriminating between its customers on the basis of sexual orientation….
Plaintiff plausibly alleges that during the transaction AVIS charged her a higher price to rent a car because AVIS did not perceive her to be a lesbian or gay customer or because AVIS did not perceive her to be associated with favored lesbian or gay customer groups….
AVIS asserts throughout its briefs that the purpose of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act is (to use AVIS’s words): “to prevent unequal treatment for disadvantaged classes of people who have been the subject of invidious discrimination.” Neither the language of the statute nor the case law speak of protecting disadvantaged classes. Instead, the Act seeks to prevent any discrimination among people on the basis of listed characteristics. Thus, because the Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, for example, it prohibits business from charging men more than women for the same services. See Koire, 40 Cal.3d at 32….
Another thread of argument runs through AVIS’s briefs: … since Plaintiff could have become a member of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association or the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and thus qualified for its favored discounts …, there was no pricing discrimination…. [But this] assumes an evidentiary showing which has yet to be made…. [A]lthough AVIS repeats it often as fact, there is no evidence that membership in either International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association or the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce was open to Plaintiff when she rented her car….
The salient allegation of the Complaint is that AVIS charged Plaintiff more money for her car rental than it would have charged Plaintiff if Plaintiff had been a member of the favored gay and lesbian groups. This is sufficient to plausibly allege a violation of [the Unruh Civil Rights Act]….
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Time to ad AVIS to the boycott list!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
YES !
YES I AGREE!
And I almost accepted a job there. Thank you!
The gay movement is wasting public tax money and should be made to pay it back plus damages … not merely in this one case but aggregate for all gay activities that have infringed on the public’s God given right to have a decent society.
Poor thing . . .
Step 2, A suit thrown out by an activist gay judge stating that this is absolutely not any form of discrimination!
Wow, I guess we know which company NOT to rent a car from!
Wow, I keep reading their rationale as to why it was okay to discriminate against her, and the opposition keeps acknowledging that they viiolated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, but they can’t hear that. They still insist that it’s okay to do that. Amazing!
How long before institutionalize violence towards people they do not like?
No one is born gay FYi
How do you know that? Many of the scientist can’t agree on that issue.
Bob your comments irk me! First build a deeper relationship with our Lord and then you’ll understand how ignorant your comments were!
By your perspective there is no such thing as perversion!
Case alleging discrimination against straight car renters may go forward!
Wow, always something new.
I’ve heard of SmartCars before, but never StraightCars…
Avis Rent A Car responds, “Since the plaintiff could have become a member of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association or the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and thus qualified for its favored discounts,….there was no pricing discrimination.”
WHAT kind of crazed logic is that? For those who have eyes to see, this is a prime example of Sister Lucy’s warning of the diabolically disoriented logic that would take place if the world continued to turn away from God. (See Messages of Our Lady of Fatima)
Avis Rent A Car discounts are now basing their rates of discount in accordance with how much you can mock and offend God. Avis is also saying…You’d better not make a single dent on one of our loaner vehicles while we are allowing ourselves to travel down the broad road to crash at 100 mph up against the Natural Law of God. Lets talk to Avis about the real meaning of crash and burn while we’re at it.
All sin offends God. Sins committed by straights and sins committed by homosexuals offend God. Avis Rent A Car has reached a new all-time low. Avis is actually saying..HEY WORLD! THE MORE YOU OFFEND GOD, THE BIGGER DISCOUNT YOU’LL RECEIVE FROM AVIS!!!!!
Even Hertz Rent A Car once favored OJ Simpson a “straight” individual who traveled down the broad road and now Avis is announcing to the world that their discount prices favor those who are not choosing the straight path but traveling down the broad disadvantaged road to hell. Wow! I guess if you are going to deliberately choose hell, why not have it at the best discounted price. What an ultimate price to pay though at the end of your temporary travel time here on earth. Sound moral logic is increasingly becoming an endangered species.
The moral of the story for all Corporations such as Avis and Hertz…Do not place mere men or the wicked sins of mere men on pedestals. Place your trust in God’s Natural Law. The least costly and safest traveling rules for everyone is to always promote entering through the narrow gate. Read Matthew 7:13 Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible
AVIS shame on you….let me go and rent from them, then I will sue them for not giving me the discount either…
Maybe if I walked in holding another woman’s hand then maybe they’ll give me the discount, if they see me cross dress, maybe they will up the discount even more…SICKO”S
Mbûkû Kanyau Mbithûka – All gays are born gay.
Sorry Peter your wrong. Gays are formed by the Devil. They are people who give into the depraved and disordered suggestions of demons who are sent to destroy their soul!
peter – There is no scientific evidence to support that all gays are born gays.
The US Center for Disease Control and many other scientists (including gay scientists), have been unable to prove that gays are born gay.
Please let us know where you are getting your scientific information that all gays are born gays, so we can check it on a reputable MEDICAL web site.
One is always called to account for ones bad habits such as smoking, or ones sins such as gluttony, but no one can help being born stupid.
Blaming one’s sexual perversions on one’s genes is like telling your mom “The devil made me do it!” when she catches you eating cookies before dinner. Actually, when anyone uses that argument, what they’re actually doing is calling God a liar and accusing Him of creating you disordered. You’re saying He made you this way so you’re only doing what comes naturally. That almost sounds like the unforgivable sin to me. I would highly recommend that anyone subscribing to that heretical point of view get a grip on his or hers licentious and ‘boy-are you-headed-right-to-Hell’ attitude, go to confession and live a life of chastity. It’s a LOT easier than spending eternity in utter despair, loneliness and hopelessness.
peter you are gravely misinformed and totally wrong! Those with the disorder, of course you think are born that way!
Many companies offer price discounts to members of various professional organizations, alumni associations from all sorts of colleges and universities, and so on. Perhaps the readers of this publication should form an association and approach the major rental car companies for a discount.
Perhaps people should just give these companies the go-by and start riding public transportation, or riding bikes or hitchhiking. Riding in sterile rental cars is so cut-off from life, so pointless, so utterly bourgeoisie. Riding to point C from point A because Point B didn’t offer a discount in a tinny, cheap little white box with greasy fingerprints and old hair follicles peppering the plastic upholstery doesn’t sound like a fun way to go, let alone suffering the indignity of some snippy avis rep lisping “I’m thorry , dahling, but you and those like you thimply don’t measure up, sweetcheekth! ” I, for one, rest easy and don’t repine that I will never, ever, rent an Avis car again. That was easy!
News flash: The discount is NOT offered to a person for BEING gay. It is set up through contracts negotiated with those organizations, and offered to members of the organizations.
Avis also has special car rental deals set up with Knights of Columbus. Even though I don’t belong to KofC, I guess I can sue Avis for not giving me that special deal.
Avis also offers discounts to Costco members, AARP members, attendees to the Catholic Charities gathering, employees of many major companies, etc. Discount coupon books have lots of Avis coupons, and I found several on-line deals. Some airlines have special deals with Avis. Anyone who meets any of the criteria is entitled to the appropriate discount.
Bottom line – this is a frivolous lawsuit, and SHOULD be thrown out. Hopefully the plaintiff will be responsible for all court costs too.
Justin,
Just in case you don’t already know it, which I highly doubt, those other organizations you listed are not engaging in Sodomy, a Sin that cries out to God for vengeance!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I still think I’d rather take a bus. haha
Frankly, no one addresses one of the BIGGEST problems we face in this country, and is probably one of the primary reasons we’re in such a mess…there are just too many lawyers in this country!! They’ve created a climate of fear and distrust, caused incredible financial strain to their clients, their antagonists and society as a whole, challenged our laws, our beliefs, our morals, broken up families with the no-fault divorce, destroyed our system of government (especially since most of our representatives are…you guessed it) as well as leading writing hacks to crank out more and more lawyer dramas on tv. I think there should be a limit as to how many lawyers there can be at any given moment, as well as fee regulations, specious lawsuit repercussions, fines for false advertising and NONE allowed to hold public office. Gee, I wonder if this will happen anytime soon? I’m not including any Catholic lawyers in my diatribe, of course!
I was born heterosexual, caucasian and can’t help who I fell in love with. Where can I go for a discount?
How about the Polygamist discount? How about a discount for the Amish…but wait some of their orders don’t drive….
SORRY but no discount for you, not unless you commit sodomy then you get the discount! SICK!
Say, Avis is leaving out so many other disordered groups, it’s not fair, or who knows, maybe they do. Why doesn’t Avis give discounts to the Bear or Chub community, or I know, How about those with genetic sexual attraction (incest) they would get an extra discount seeing how they’re family. And let’s not forget about the NAMBLA members, Avis shouldn’t discriminate against them.
Justin Browsin unwittingly responds by using the words Bottom line, as if it is a helpful response. Disgusting! Gross! That is exactly what Kenneth M. Fisher is talking about.
Do the letters in the name AVIS really stand for Aversions, Vices, Incest, Sodomy? Yuk! No thank you! Who wants to sit inside one of their cars now or have their little ones sit on those same seats.
I don’t think anyone else read it that way, health. Actually, you’ve got a a rather prurient imagination. Bottom lines are often just that..the dotted lines we sign our monikers on and all that.
Dana –
We do not discriminate against nonCatholics, so feel free to express yourself!