A 21-year-old California man is suing comedian Iliza Shlesinger for turning him away from a women-only show, comparing his experiences to those of African Americans prior to the Civil Rights Movement.
In a lawsuit obtained by The Hollywood Reporter that begins with a quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, attorney Alfred Rava claims his client George St. George is a victim of the Last Comic Standing winner’s “war on men.”
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St. George says in the 14-page complaint that he and a friend bought tickets for a Nov. 13 show at Largo at The Coronet advertised as “Girls Night in with Iliza — No Boys Allowed” and was told that they could only enter if they sat in the back row of the theater “because of their sex.”
After grabbing food and returning for the show, St. George alleges the same employee they had spoken to earlier told them the theater decided only women would be admitted and they would be refunded the price of their tickets.
Rava then describes the experience as similar to racial segregation experienced across the South during the Civil Rights Movement.
He also argued the decision to turn away St. George and his friend violates the Unruh Civil Rights Act and California’s business and professions code.
“Simply put, it is against many California laws for a business to discriminate against patrons based on their sex or other personal characteristics, such as race or sexual orientation which should surprise no one,” he writes, arguing that a women-only show “repudiated hundreds of years of women’s struggles to be viewed as being equal to men and is typical of old-fashioned sexism that might also advise a young woman that her best chance for a happy life is to ace her home economics class and learn how to make a queso dip from Velveeta to catch a good man.”
UTA and Largo at The Coronet are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which is posted in full here. St. George is also requesting an injunction barring defendants from engaging in unequal treatment of consumers based on sex, an order requiring them to undergo sex discrimination sensitivity training as well as statutory damages.
Photo credit: Instagram / @ilizas
