On Saturday, May 3rd, Unsley Baker and her girlfriend Liz Victor attended a Kentucky Derby party at the Liberty Hotel in Boston, where they soaked up a bathroom break.
Despite both identifying as cisgender women, Baker’s more masculine, existing appearance led to visitors who attended the hotel.
“All of a sudden I was knocking on the door,” Baker said. CBS News. “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.’ ”
Despite this, the guards escorted Baker from the toilet, waiting for the other women to misunderstand her by making transphobic comments on Baker.
“Someone said, “Get him out of here.” [and] “He’s a creep,” she said, calling the entire incident “humiliation.”
The security guard then asked the couple’s ID to check their gender. Victor told CBS News that things got hot at that point. She and Baker were ordered to leave the hotel.
The Liberty Hotel said in a statement on Monday, May 5th that “several women” warned the security of “two adults sharing a bathroom stall.” The statement alleged that one of the women had placed their hands on security guards, which led them to be kicked out of the hotel.
Baker and Win denies being on the same food stall.
“If that were to happen, he would have closed the case because there was obviously only one person there,” Victor said. “Tie her shorts and spend her day.”
The next day, the Liberty Hotel said it had concluded its investigation into the incident and stopped security guards. The hotel also claimed that all staff would retrain with “Comprehensive Practices and Guest Interaction Protocol” and donate money to local LGBTQ organizations.
“The Liberty Hotel has always been an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and is a place where everyone is welcome and blessed,” the hotel said in a statement. “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.”
Victor and Baker have problems with the initial characterization of the hotel incident.
“We have never seen an official statement of apologies or withdrawal of their original claims that it would make it clear that Ansley is the only one on the food stall,” the couple said in a statement.
Nina Servaggio, executive director of Greater Boston PFLAG, believes that treatment for the couple has been more widespread in society, with an increase in anti-transgender sentiment and repulsion towards gender incongruity, regardless of person’s gender or gender identity.
“Gender misconformance, lesbians, and ordinary women are harassed in public toilets is a story as old as it was,” Selvaggio said. “I think the surge in national anti-trans rhetoric has contributed to an increase in policing of women’s bodies and gender expression.”
Baker and Victor shared their stories with the media in hopes of making a difference.
Victor noted that the incident was “a very scary situation,” saying that trans women are experiencing this same type of treatment “everyday in the US and around the world.”
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
