San Marino Mayor Quits All-Male Club

After 10 years of membership, San Marino Mayor Bernard Le Sage announced his resignation Friday from a prestigious community organization that has a 70-year-old policy of barring women as members.

“I probably should have quit before,” Le Sage said Friday. “I probably should not have joined.”

Club members defended their policy in the face of Le Sage’s protest.

“There is no exclusion from our activities, just from our membership,” said former President Ken Riley. “I suppose it’s reasonable to say that it is discrimination, but it is discrimination with a small ‘d.’ ”

However small, the bylaws bothered Le Sage. He sent a letter to the City Club’s newly elected president, Chuck Adams, stating that as mayor he “cannot condone nor participate in any activity that discriminates on the basis of . . . gender.”

The club, founded in the 1920s, is open to all men living within the boundaries of the San Marino School District.

Le Sage was a member of the club’s board for two years, helping to direct the organization’s civic events.

The mayor began protesting the club’s policy when he was a board member in the early 1990s, but found little support.

“It just didn’t seem like a big deal,” Riley said, explaining that if the members’ wives or daughters want to attend the club’s monthly dinner meetings, they are more than welcome.

Le Sage’s decision to leave was sparked during a conversation with Adams two weeks ago when the president “declined both to bring [Le Sage’s complaint] to the board or to change the policy” he said.