Men’s rights activist sues women’s craft beer club over ‘discrimination’

A women’s craft beer club is desperately fundraising after a men’s rights activist tried to sue their organisation over discrimination.

Ting Su, co-founder of Eagle Rock Brewery in Los Angeles, set up a monthly event for women interested in beer back in 2011 after finding men often interrupted with their opinions when customers asked her for beer recommendations.

But Steve Frye – a men’s rights activist – emailed the brewery in November last year to complain one of their staff had told him the upcoming Women’s Beer Forum was for “women only”.

According to Ms Su, Mr Frye went on to demand thousands of dollars from the brewery, threatening a discrimination complaint through the government if they refused to pay.

“We had to settle before we went into litigation because going into litigation would have been too much of a financial burden on the company. That is why they target small businesses," she told The Independent.

Ms Su said she thought Mr Frye targeted her brewery to make money and to stop women "from trying to gain presence in a traditionally male-dominated industry”.

“Since he had never purchased admission through our online sales portal, we were unaware about his request to attend the Women’s Beer Forum,” explains the GoFundMe page. “We apologised about the miscommunication and offered him an opportunity to learn about the same flight of beers provided at the event for the same ticket price.”

But he refused the offer and instead filed a claim through the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) – who later told the brewery they had decided there was reasonable cause to open a case.

The company was forced to pay a settlement to stop the brewery potentially folding. It is currently fundraising for their legal fees and the settlement sum.

“It kills me to say that we ended up settling,” she said. “It’s something we had to do in order to protect the business, our home, the livelihoods of our team, and the investments made by friends and family who believe in us. Further, we truly believe that justice hasn’t been achieved and the fight isn’t over.”

Ms Su said she wanted to raise awareness so other businesses can protect themselves from such lawsuits. “There needs to be more awareness about these ‘men’s rights activists’ who target and unfairly take advantage of women’s groups and small businesses,” she added.

She initially set up the Women’s Beer Forum after seeing women get “pigeonholed by their male counterparts into drinking only specific beer styles” and becoming eager to create an environment that was “less male-dominated” than the wider craft beer industry.

“On occasion, we would have men attend, present, and even participate in the discussions,” she said. “It was simply named 'Women’s Beer Forum' because I wanted to create a comfortable, safe environment for more women to actively join the conversation about craft beer.”

The brewery is the latest victim in a slew of gender-based discrimination lawsuits launched by men’s rights activists who are hitting out at events designed for women in the US.

Steve Frye could not be reached for comment.