New Client of Feminist Sues Burbank Club : Allred Again Challenges All-Women Gym

Attorney Gloria Allred, whose sex-discrimination lawsuit against an all-women gym collapsed because the male plaintiff did not want to bother privacy-seeking women exercisers, has filed another such suit against the health club.

The suit was filed Monday in Burbank Superior Court against the Women Only spa in Studio City on behalf of Anthony A. Flacco of Studio City.

The new suit provoked an exchange of accusations between Allred and an attorney for the gym, each threatening to ask the California State Bar to cite the other for unethical conduct.

Allred, who had complained that her former client did not show the personal courage needed for a civil-rights crusader, said Wednesday she is confident that Flacco “is committed to equality and understands what a lawsuit involves.”

Allred, a feminist who has made a career of high-profile lawsuits alleging discrimination against women, brought three suits in February against Los Angeles-area businesses she accused of illegally discriminating against men.

One was on behalf of James Moore of Studio City against Women Only, alleging that, by refusing to admit him or other men, the health spa violated the state’s “Unruh Law” against sex or racial discrimination by businesses.

Disgusted by Lawyers

Moore announced earlier this month that he was withdrawing from the suit because he was disgusted by the conduct of lawyers on both sides and because he had been convinced he should not intrude on the women members of the club if they did not want him.

Women Only, founded in Woodland Hills three years ago, has about 10,000 members, mostly at two gyms in the San Fernando Valley, and recently opened gyms in Brentwood and Santa Ana.

Barry C. Groveman, the attorney for Women Only, defended the club’s single-sex policy as a rational exercise of women’s right to privacy, which he said the law supports. “It would be just as absurd to argue that a man has a right to be present in a women’s restroom,” he said.

The members chose to join the club because they want to avoid the “pickup atmosphere” of some gyms and because they feel uncomfortable wearing exercise clothes around men, he said.

“Some must belong to this club on religious grounds,” he said. “At least 50 or more of these women would have no other place to work out because their religions require they not be unclad in the presence of other men after their marriage.”

Flacco is a legal secretary for a West Los Angeles law firm and the author, under the pen name James Fallon, of the play “Babe’s All-Nite Cafe.” Flacco said he wants to join Women Only because it is convenient to his home.

He knew of the previous lawsuit when he went to the club March 16, expecting to be turned away and then to file suit, he said.

“I admit that, on the surface, this is going to look silly to a lot of people,” he said. “The heart of it isn’t whether one guy gets into a health club, but whether the public is fairly treated. This business, whether run by men or women, is run by individuals who seek private profit by openly flaunting an offer of discrimination.”

After Moore announced he was withdrawing from the suit, Allred said she expected to return to court “when there is another man who wishes to pursue this lawsuit and has the requisite stamina and courage.”

Five days later, Groveman noted, Flacco appeared at Women Only. The club’s lawyer accused Allred of issuing “a public invitation to a lawsuit,” and complained that she was putting Women Only under an expensive legal siege “because she’s trying to build a base to run for the state Senate . . . trying to shift her image from a feminist attorney to a civil-rights attorney.

“This is a classic case of barratry, the persistent incitement of litigation for the purposes of the lawyer, which is disreputable,” he said. “My client is considering referring this matter to the State Bar.”

Allred said that Moore, Flacco and other men sought her out to sue the health club, and she called Groveman’s accusation “the most convoluted, distorted, bizarre statement I’ve heard in a long time.”

“I will respond in kind,” she said. “In the event they file a charge against me, I will file a charge with the State Bar against Mr. Groveman for making defamatory and unsubstantiated remarks attacking me as a lawyer as part of his strategy to defend a civil case.”

Allred said she had been approached to run for elective office, “but I’m not a candidate at this time.”

“If he thinks he can frighten me, he’s wrong,” she said. “I have not allowed the remarks of any man in the last 10 years to deter me. . . . He picked the wrong lawyer to attack. Sen. John Schmitz found that out.”

A press release issued in 1981 by Schmitz, a former Republican state senator from Newport Beach, referred to Allred as a “slick butch lawyeress.” She sued for libel and, in a settlement, won $20,000 and a public apology from Schmitz.