Gym bounces gay man for his flirty T-shirt

David Cano says the T-shirt he concocted was just a gag: "I NEED A MAN OR A DATE. Serious inquiries only." Plus his phone number, complete with area code.

Cano's joke didn't amuse everyone at his gym, the California Family Fitness Center in Elk Grove. Member complaints about the shirt led management to ask that he stop wearing it. When Cano refused, his gym trial membership was revoked due to "disorderly conduct."

That was on Valentine's Day. Now Cano is the one making serious inquiries – to a lawyer. He believes he is being discriminated against because he is gay.

"There had to be some straight guys who had a problem with my shirt," Cano said Tuesday.

"If it was a straight woman who wore that shirt – straight guys wouldn't have a problem with it. I think the gym has a problem – they're very bigoted and discriminatory. They don't like openly gay men."

Not true, said Russ Kuhn, co-president of California Family Fitness Inc., which is headquartered in Orangevale.

"We're a family facility and not a dating service," Kuhn said.

"We wouldn't let someone wear a shirt saying 'I'm looking for a man,' or for a woman, or, for that matter, for a child. It has nothing to do with Mr. Cano as an individual – it has to do with making it a fun, safe family atmosphere. We have kids there all day."

Kuhn said Cano was called at home to avoid embarrassing him at the gym.

"His response was he was going to wear it anyway and we'd have to drag him out," said Kuhn.

"We didn't want him making a scene at the club – he had a guest pass, which we revoked. If somebody's not willing to follow the rules, they're not entitled to use the facilities."

The rules require "appropriate attire" but don't spell out what that means – which could be a problem for California Family Fitness, said Alan Schlosser, legal director of the ACLU of Northern California.

"If they could show they have a rule that prohibits any socializing that leads to dating, that would be different," Schlosser said.

"Here, I think, the fact that some people find dating by gay people upsetting is not a basis for discriminating. And calling it a 'family center' doesn't give them a license to discriminate."

Discrimination based on sexual orientation is a violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Schlosser said. Cano's contention that his freedom of speech was violated is on shakier ground, however.

"The Constitution doesn't apply here – it's a private club, not the government," the ACLU lawyer said.

Cano said he wore the shirts – he actually has two of them, red and white – frequently during workouts at the Elk Grove gym, where he had a two-month trial membership.

Two women liked it so much, he said, that they asked him to make them some, minus the phone number.

"Disorderly conduct is a pretty heavy statement," said Cano, who is 43 and works out four times a week. "I haven't had any disorderly conduct – I haven't caused any problems. They're just trying to spin it so I don't sue."

California Family Fitness' Elk Grove gym also aroused controversy in 2006, when the issue wasn't a shirt but lack of one. A gym manager told a nursing mother to either cover up or leave because members had complained.

Under a 1997 California law, women are entitled to breast-feed in public. Kuhn's partner, Larry Gury, apologized publicly for that incident and a similar one at the company's Roseville gym.

"If our managers do anything wrong, we correct them," Kuhn said. "Freedom of speech is OK – but not in here, if it's offensive. We're very diverse and we cater toward everybody. I wouldn't let somebody wear a shirt that would offend Mr. Cano's orientation."

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