I think it is a difference in approach then - we had one point of view expressed, and you saw the manager as a petty, bigoted tyrant. I'd like to hear from the manager herself before deciding she was as harsh and oppressive as all that. With all due apologies to the original poster, I've been down the road with many complaints, too many to trust to any single side of the story. Are you sure the original poster didn't leave out some crucial element that could have raised the manager's suspicions about this particular patron with this particular bag (said suspicions being apparently addressed, otherwise he would have had his admission refused and ticket refunded)?

Same with her reaction, which happened to be towards a man. This one time, no other evidence of a similar reaction to towards any other man. Or, no evidence of a similar reaction to women carrying bags. No evidence at all basically, just an incident. Hardly enough to conclude that she was guilty of discrimination, based on sex, because she was talking to a man. Left to those criteria, everyone has a roughly 50:50 chance of being guilty of sex discrimination, instead of just being wrong this one time.