The Phoenix Country Club, the Men’s Grill, and Rusty Brown

By Sarah Fenske
Published on March 17, 2009 at 2:44pm

Rusty Brown isn't your typical civil rights hero.

For starters, he's a white male. He's also a lawyer and a really good golfer: a six-time tournament champion at the Phoenix Country Club. (His handicap is a plus-2 — which tends to elicit gasps of envy from people who know about golf.)

So you're probably thinking Rusty Brown is your classic rich white male asshole, right?

Wrong.

Rusty Brown — golfer, lawyer, privileged white dude — is the sacrificial lamb in a very odd, very nasty battle.

For nearly three years, the Phoenix Country Club has roiled with tension over demands that it desegregate its casual-dining facilities. As recently as 2008, there was a Men's Grill and a much inferior Women's Grill at the PCC — and gender rules were strictly enforced at the door.

Brown thought that was wrong, and said so.

Eventually, his views were vindicated by no less than Attorney General Terry Goddard, whose office forced the club to open the Men's Grill to women. But Brown still got screwed.

Never mind that certain other club members acted like total jerks during the Men's Grill controversy — vandalizing the golf course, peeing into a complainant's locker, sending nasty e-mails — and never suffered punishment. Never mind that all Brown did was advocate, reasonably, for change. He was still booted from the club where he played golf for 18 years.

And here's the ultimate insult: Even though Brown paid roughly $50,000 for his stock in the club, the club sent him a refund of just $450 when it expelled him.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office recently found "reasonable cause" that Brown was a victim of unlawful retaliation.

You think?

Brown didn't want to talk to me about any of this. Believe it or not, I've been pestering him to go on the record since his expulsion last July. He's been reluctant because he's genuinely embarrassed to be complaining about his former country club at a time when hard-working Americans are losing their jobs.

But I kept after him, especially after I learned of the attorney general's determination in January that he'd been illegally retaliated against. The story intrigued me. I'm used to dealing with whistleblowers who are outsiders; Brown was the ultimate insider. And unlike most others who pushed for desegregated dining, Brown had no personal stake. He was already "in" at the better grill; his wife, a physician, doesn't hang out at the club.

And, as Brown confirmed when we finally sat down last week, he hardly knew the couple who originally complained to the AG, Logan and Barbara Van Sittert. He'd never met Barbara; he knew Logan well enough only to say "hi" on the golf course.

But Brown had his convictions. So when the Van Sitterts started raising hell, Brown's first thought was, "It's about time."

For the rest of the story................http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2009-03-19/news/the-phoeinx-country-club-the-men-s-grill-and-rusty-brown

Discrimination is not a fine tradition, it is a vile nasty habit

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Ladies, Please Keep Off the Grass

You read it here, in a blog for goodness sake, written in the year 2009. Women must keep off the grass.

Had the boys not manage their clubs in the same fashion as AIG, they would have held onto the long tradition of discrimination at least a few more years. Now, they find themselves in the same boat as our bailed out bank buddies, autonomy manifested in Wall Street conferences in Florence go the way of prime tee times, burping, farting, and swearing in the MEN's Grill. When you rely on the public largess for your survival, you must play by the same rules as the peons do.

I know, I understand, it is just so unfair. After all, you only had a few swim clubs use the new pool, and the school golf teams were uninvited as soon as you know they might screw up your "private" status, what is a poor guy supposed to do, you ask?

You might start with the acceptance that you lost your privilege to discriminate as soon as you screwed up the course so bad, that members fled in haste. I have heard that acceptance is the first step in recovery, so how 'bout you come to terms with the fact that there are far more impressive courses available. It is tough, but there is life outside of the bubble and some of the courses in town do not have sand traps that flood daily. Some courses don't need to paint their fairways.

Brace yourself; the next statement will shock you. You may have had to resort to holding public events because, now get ready..... are you ready? Membership might have fallen, I'm just saying,..... it might have decreased, here we go..... because women,... now I told you this will hurt, but be strong,.... women will no longer agree to using their households' funds for services they can't use. Silly creatures. Gotta love 'em, but boy do they aggravate. They now expect to get something for their hard earned money.

What has this world come to? Civilization is lost. I tell ya, do you hear the sucking sound? We are circling the drain when men have to share their grills with girls.