“>>
Can private businesses discriminate against customers or clients?
“No. California law requires businesses to treat all customers and prospective customers equally without arbitrary discrimination based on personal characteristics such as race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation,
gender identity, marital status or medical condition. The Unruh Civil Rights Act forbids this type of discrimination by all sorts of business establishments from restaurants to movie theaters to nightclubs, from medical facilities to schools, from motels to
health clubs. It covers nonprofit as well as for-profit agencies."
"Businesses sometimes post signs saying they 'reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.' Proprietors may refuse to serve customers on a nondiscriminatory basis, such as refusing to serve those who are not wearing shoes, for example, but they may not impose special rules about clothing or other aspects of personal appearance as a way of screening out customers based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or other prohibited personal characteristics. The Unruh Civil Rights Act is found at section 51 of the Government Code.”
From The State Bar of California, “Your Rights and Resources” 2006 Edition, Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identiy Discriminaton at
http://calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/com...-Resources.pdf