Costco's Disability Discrimination
Discrimination by Costco in California against those Medically Exempt from Face Coverings.
Three times now two different Costcos, one in SLO County & one in Santa Barbara County, California have harassed me & discriminated against me by forbidding me to come in or serve me because I have Tourette’s Syndrome, an American Disabilities Act recognized/protected disability & cannot wear a face covering of any sort. This discriminatory behavior on the part of Costco is contrary to county & state mask mandates & is wholly illogical & just downright stupid. Face coverings either aggravate my facial and breathing tics, involuntary movements caused by the Tourette’s or prevent me from being able to perform the tics.
You can read more about Tourette’s Syndrome here: https://tourette.org/about-tourette/overview/what-is-tourette/
Each time, I’ve shown them my exemption letter from my treating doctor, explained it all to them, showed them the CA state & county mask mandates providing for medical exemptions, given them studies & evidence showing masks & face shields do little to nothing in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses such as COVID, explained I’m already naturally immune from COVID & haven’t been sick in any way since Feb. of 2020, when I am 99.99% certain I already had COVID, & they don’t care. To them, I am, in their words, “a direct threat to employees' and other members' health and safety,” a claim with has not one ounce of truth in it for all sorts of reasons that I of course explained to them & which they of course rejected & did not care about.
I worked my way up to the corporate level, dealing last with a member of Costco’s corporate legal team concerning my complaint of their continued discrimination, politely requesting them to cease & desist and serve me equally as everyone else, once again providing evidence of my exemption & their violation of California’s mask mandates, & very likely federal law via the ADA. They have continued to insist that they are within legal bounds of the state mask mandates to refuse me entrance & service or grant me a temporary “accommodation” to serve me separate from everyone else, “separate but equal” it would has been said in the Jim Crow South. I asked Costco to please stop discriminating against me & others like me, indeed anyone & just provide masks for whoever wants them & let each individual customer choose to wear one if they like, serving all equally, like other stores do, but, in the words of their corporate legal team member, that is “not how Costco does business.” So apparently, Costco’s "business model,” i.e. how it “does business” is via the old Jim Crow adage of “separate but equal,” via unlawful & despicable discrimination & segregation of those with medical or disability issues.
I’ve been discriminated against in this way by 95% of the stores in my vicinity that I’ve tried to conduct my business in during the last 2 years, each one refusing to serve me or only serve me outside or online, segregating me from the rest of the the more equal mask wearing society as an unclean pariah, dehumanizing me in the process. I have no other recourse left but legal action with these stores like Costco that refuse to serve me equally like the few others who put up their signs, provide the masks, etc. but let their clientele choose, the proper way of doing business under such unlawful mandates. But I cannot afford legal action as my job was taken from me by the organization’s discriminatory and segregationist vaccine mandate & no local business are going to hire me as I can’t wear face coverings, despite the mask mandates providing for exemptions in employment as well and despite California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act’s prohibition of discrimination based on medical condition. Costco’s despicable behavior against me & all those like me, not to mention all who just don’t want to wear a mask needs to be publicized as much as possible & brought to the court of public opinion. That’s the only other recourse to justice I have since legal action is not a likely option for me unless an attorney were to to my case pro bono.
What follows are screen shots from my correspondence with Costco, from one of their operations managers to correspondence with the corporate legal team member. I have blacked out names & other identifying pieces of info from the emails. I’ve also attached screen shots of the state & county mask mandates providing for exemptions. Some of the emails are lengthy as they required me to go into some details to try & persuade Costco from their unlawful & discriminatory behavior. I of course will no longer do business with Costco & hope as many people as possible will join me in withholding business from them until they stop this discrimination & apartheid & welcome all customers in equally, as decent, respectful human beings would do and as public accommodation laws require.
