Ariz. Woman Sues Avis for Offering Gay Discounts

Googled her name and it happens she has a public Linkedin account that shows her owning a Travel Agency since the mid 90's... one would think that as a Travel agent she would be aware that many hotel and rental car agencies offer discounts to members of a plethora of organizations! Clearly, she's looking for a pay day, because this is by no means an uncommon business approach within the industry.

Every company has the autonomous right to choose who to provide discounts to--whether their critics like it or not. The latter stated, this and other related discount types can only become a subject of litigation if the argument of the plaintiff is valid. That stated, it is NOT illegal to offer discounts to members of credible organizations such as the LGBT ones that were mentioned--especially if they exist for a just socio-political cause. Clearly, this woman is a homophobe who merely (and quite severely) opted to pick on Avis for being gay-friendly and offering discounts to members of highly prominent sociopolitical LGBT organizations who NEED such discounts to get where they need to go. She falsely equates being gay-friendly with the unfair favoritism of gays. As a gay man myself, I have never been more disgusted in my life. As a psychology student who aspires to be a therapist, I truly feel that she needs counseling to resolve her homophobic feeling

There is no case here at all. The discounts were offered to members of LGBT advocacy or social organizations. These organizations' membership is open to straight and gay people alike. Therefore, this straight woman would have been eligible for the discount, too, had she joined one of the organizations. The case will get laughed out of court, and some lawyers will make some money.

Ye Gods! I guess she ought to file suit against companies that give a AAA discount, too--since not everyone is a AAA member. And maybe a good lawsuit against the Catholic Church, too, since it give preference to Catholics. C'mon, lady!! You're making yourself look dumber than a box of rocks!

Sounds like this woman is trying to get paid for her homophobia.

Pay no attention to the bigot from AZ. she's obviously a nut-job. 'Gay Discount' ahahahah, you have to have membership, duh!!! She's not a member so she doesn't get the discount...it's not about being Gay, it's about being a member...so basically she hates gays and is now trying to claim discrimination because of sexual orientation...How about go find a group to join and get a discount!!! Maybe the bigots with small brains, you can be their President!!!

Avis was the first rental car company to allow same sex partners to drive without paying a fee for additional driver! I've rented almost exclusively from Avis ever since.

Avis doesn't offer 'Gay Discounts.' They offer discounts to various organizations, some of which happen to include LGBT members. They are not giving discounts to all gay people. All of us gay people don't belong to every LGBT organization. It's like saying that because Avis offers discounts to members of AARP they're discriminating on the basis of age. Or because they offer discounts to the National Baptist Convention they're discriminating on the basis of religion.

This is a stupid claim. Organizations do not have sexual orientations. The IGLTA negotiated a deal on behalf of its members, and directly from their website, 'Membership is open to any individual, association, corporation or partnership directly or indirectly involved with the gay and lesbian travel industry.' There doesn't seem to be a requirement of sexual orientation. I agree with MarkSF. She could join, i bet they even have straight members. Since orientation isn't a prerequisite to joining the IGLTA, this is not discrimination based upon sexual orientation. In other words, she wasn't denied the discount because she was straight, she was denied the discount because she was not a member of a group who had negotiated a deal with the company in question. Ludicrous.

I'm pretty sure a good majority of the folks getting discounts were NOT gay.