Trump golf club was hit with lawsuit from men's rights activist over Breast Cancer Awareness Month

A small-time men's rights activist once challenged the litigation king and was swiftly banished to the kids' table

Published November 1, 2016 7:20PM (EDT)

Donald Trump   (Reuters/Dominick Reuter)
Donald Trump (Reuters/Dominick Reuter)

In the dojo of frivolous litigation, Donald Trump is to men's rights activist Steve Frye what a sensei is to a janitor.

Frye, a resident of Huntington Beach, California, likes to sue service industry companies that offer any sort of "ladies' night"-type promos.

In 2013, for instance, he filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Cha Cha's Latin Kitchen, from which he demanded $4,000 in compensation after twice visiting the restaurant and twice being denied the "Señorita Thursday" $5 drinks-and-apps menu. Lawyers for Cha Cha's eventually proved Frye was offered the deal but denied it, and a jury ruled in the defendant's favor in 2014.

Three years earlier, Frye filed a similar suit against the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. According to The Los Angeles Times, Frye noticed in October 2010 that Trump's course was offering 25 percent discounts to women in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"Providing discounted green fees to only female patrons is as offensive, archaic and unlawful as giving discounted green fees to only male patrons, or charging people of color more than Caucasians for green fees, or charging homosexuals more than heterosexuals for green fees," Frye argued in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2011.

In a motion to dismiss the suit, Trump National's attorney, Jill Martin, argued that the discount met “two important public policies: raising awareness for breast cancer and encouraging women to play golf."

According to The Los Angeles Times, "A judge agreed and threw out Frye’s case before it reached trial, writing that the promotion didn't 'perpetuate any kind of stereotype, but rather supported public awareness of breast cancer."

Below, find a historical reenactment:


By Brendan Gauthier

Brendan Gauthier is a freelance writer.

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