Thank you Dennis for standing up for equal rights.

On February 13, 2011 Dennis was shot during a robbery. A bullet lodged in his brain. He was hospitalized, in a comma, until contracting pneumonia. The love of his life, Julie Palasco, was also shot, she died at the scene of the crime. Pasqual Raul Loera was arrested and charged with murder. Loera shot Dennis and Julie, ransacked their home, and stole a black Infinity, a car Dennis and Julie were trying to sell to help them ease into retirement. Dennis and Julie were good hearted people who cared about others. Their senseless deaths have left huge holes in the lives of their many friends and loved ones.

As a California college student in the early 1980s, Dennis objected to the reduced prices local businesses offered to only women on so-called Ladies’ Days or Ladies’ Nights.  So Dennis sued a bar and seven car washes after he requested the discounts offered to women only to be refused.  The owner of one car wash told Dennis to “come back when you’re wearing a skirt or bring your mother and have her drive.”  After losing at the trial court and Court of Appeal, Dennis took his case to the California Supreme Court, which unanimously reversed the lower courts and ruled that sex-based promotions such as Ladies’ Days and Ladies’ Night were per se injurious and violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.

Koire v. Metro Car Wash is one of California’s most significant civil rights cases. Thanks to Dennis’s courage the citizens and visitors of California are assured of equal treatment in the provision of public services. Millions of people and future generations should be indebted to Dennis for standing tall for his beliefs, and refusing to be discriminated against for no other reason than being a man.

Tags: dennis koire, discrimination against men, gender discrimination, koire, mens rights, national coalition for men, ncfm, sex discrimination, sexism, women free