A prominent Buffalo Grove LGBTQ activist wants a Lake County judge to cancel a defamation lawsuit she faces from a dance school owner regarding controversial social media posts.
Louise Taitz, owner of On Your Toes Dance Academy in Buffalo Grove, filed suit in Lake County Circuit Court against Carolyn Pinta on Aug. 30, saying Pinta accused her of “preaching non-affirmation” and “hate” that can “cause suicide.”
Pinta, a Buffalo Grove middle school teacher and onetime village board candidate in the northwest suburb, directs nonprofit groups known as The Pinta Pride Project and BG Pride, which she runs with her family to organize Buffalo Grove’s Pride events.
In a motion filed Dec. 20, Pinta asked Judge Luis Berrones to dismiss the complaint.
Longtime political opposites, both women agree the situation escalated in June 2022. Pinta said the conflict came to a head when Taitz published social media posts online that Pinta said advanced a petition addressed to gym operator Lifetime Fitness that allegedly sought "to exclude transgender women from locker rooms based on the unfounded assertion that they were more likely to be sexually deviant and criminal.”
But Taitz said Pinta’s posts about the petition crossed over into personal attacks and attempts to harm her business by encouraging people to avoid or withdraw from On Your Toes Dance Academy.
Taitz’s lawsuit includes counts against Pinta for defamation per se and tortious interference with business relations. She is asking the court to order Pinta to pay at least $50,000, plus punitive damages and attorney fees.
Pinta, who is represented by Gail Eisenberg and Davina DiPaolo, of the Chicago office of Loftus & Eisenberg, argued otherwise.
Pinta argued her statements against Taitz should be "innocently construed" because they only share "Pinta’s substantially truthful opinion that misgendering and falsely painting transgender women as sexually deviant criminals contributes to high incidences of suicide in that community,” according to the Dec. 20 motion.
“Taitz’s remedy was more speech, not enlisting the courts to chill opposing opinions," Pinta argued.
In her motion, Pinta said her teenage daughter is gay and they started organizing pride events in 2018. She targeted Taitz’s social media activity on other issues, such as opposing Covid-19 mask mandates; a post lamenting the “cancellation” of ballets like “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” and the books of Dr. Seuss; and another post calling “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah a “privileged, racist, South African … piece of garbage." According to an online biography, Taitz immigrated to the U.S. from South Africa.
Pinta further alleged Taitz is active on the Vernon Township Republican Organization’s Facebook page and “most relevant” to the motion to dismiss is her activity on the social media pages of businesses like grocery stores and restaurants, as well as those in her professional sphere.
“Taitz is likewise not shy about sharing her views on social media about other businesses,” Pinta argued: “Studio R Rina Wallach, The Teresa Johnson Ballet School, Donna Muller’s School of Dance, Nexstar National Talent Competition, Legend National Dance Competition and Rise Up Academy-Gymnastics, Dance, Cheer (which she accused of plagiarism in her review).”
Pinta said she took down the post regarding Taitz and the locker room petition after hearing from Taitz’s lawyer, Lawrence Steingold, of Arlington Heights. But then on June 21 came a cease-and-desist letter, Pinta claimed, followed by a July 5 letter demanding $25,000 and a public apology, and then the lawsuit.
In arguing to have the complaint dismissed with prejudice, Pinta said the statements attributed to her are not legally actionable because Taitz cannot prove Pinta made false statements beyond the inference that Pinta alleged Taitz’s opinions on transgender women cause suicide. In that regard, Pinta said, the reasonable reading is that “baseless claims of transgender criminality and sexually deviance contribute to high levels of suicide in the community, not that Taitz committed a crime.”
Pinta further argued her own opinions about whether Taitz’s words are toxic is protected speech and said her “alleged statements constituted non-actionable opinions that constituted hyperbolic and figurative words and phrases.” Beyond that she added, the context of “a Facebook debate suggests her statement was a protected opinion, rather than a credible statement of fact.”
Regarding allegations of tortious interference, Pinta argued her remarks were “certainly not the kind of actions that the law finds repugnant in a society that values the free exchange of ideas and consumer choice.”
She also added Taitz can’t claim her words were unjustified given they “were made in the context of alerting others that Taitz was discouraging people from doing business with Lifetime Fitness because of their inclusive, legally required policy.”
Finally, Pinta said dismissal with prejudice is appropriate because Taitz’s “vindictive claims cannot be salvaged with an amendment.”