The cisgender woman says she was asked about her gender by a security guard at a hotel toilet in Boston over the weekend.
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Anthlee Baker and her girlfriend, Liz Victor, both CIS women attended the Kentucky Derby Party at the Boston CBS Affiliate Liberty Hotel on Saturday WBZ Report. Baker was at the food stall in the lobby toilet, but Victor was waiting for her in the sink as a security man entered the bathroom and began knocking on the food stall door, the woman said.
“All of a sudden I was knocking on the door,” Baker told WBZ. “I pulled up my shorts. I wasn’t tied them up. One of the guards told me I was a man in the women’s bathroom. I said, ‘I’m a woman.’ ”
The guard escorted Baker from the toilet and made some mild comments while the women waited in line, she said. “Someone says, ‘Get him out of here’ and see me.
When the woman was in the lobby, the guard asked for her ID so she could confirm her gender. “Victor said things got hotter and the couple were eventually told to leave the hotel,” the TV station reports.
The Liberty Hotel issued a statement Monday that Security received complaints about two adults sharing a toilet stall. Baker and Victor say they are not together at the food stall.
Hotel officials on Tuesday investigated the incident and issued a statement saying security guards had been suspended. They also have LGBTQ+ Local organizations and hotel workers are receiving new training “inclusive practices and guest interaction protocols.”
“The Liberty Hotel has always been an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and is a place where everyone is welcome and praised,” the statement said. “We will continue to educate and train our teams so that everyone is safe and accepted within our four walls, and guests who have not shown to be tolerant and acceptance of others are removed.”
Nina Serbaggio, executive director of Greater Boston PFLAG, told WBZ that the incident reflected anti-LGBTQ+, especially anti-transgender rhetoric across the country, even in liberal Massachusetts.
“For gender and composition [people]lesbians, women in general, are harassed in public toilets, is a story as old as it was in the ages,” Selvaggio said.
Victor told the station:
Baker said, “We are not the only ones facing this kind of thing, we hope it never happens again and we want other people experiencing this to get the same support.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
