The transphobic notion that a trans woman wants to just get into a woman’s bathroom to attack other women has now led to a woman being accosted by a male security officer in a hotel’s restroom. All because he seemingly thought she wasn’t a woman…
Ansley Baker is a cis woman and was using the restroom at the same time as her girlfriend. While at the Liberty Hotel in Boston, Baker said a security guard entered the bathroom, demanded that she prove her gender to him, and then was told to leave the hotel. “He demands my ID, which I gave him. Things still got heated. We kept repeating that I’m a woman,” she said.
The Black List founder Franklin Leonard hit the nail on the head with his tweet on the situation. “So just to be clear, y’all’s transphobia did, in fact, result in a woman being attacked by a man in the women’s bathroom.” An unfortunately common transphobic belief is that for some reason, trans women only want to get into the bathroom to attack women.
It’s a dangerous “debate” that those on the anti-trans side of things push. Public figures like J.K. Rowling have continually pushed a narrative that trans women are, in some way, harming other women (this is not true). But what happened to Baker is because of these people who use bathroom rights as some kind of sticking point.
No one should have to prove their “gender” before going to the bathroom. In fact, many bathroom situations in New York are single stalls with an open sink area so that everyone can wash their hands. It’s easy, there are no labels on the bathrooms themselves, and it’s a more balance bathroom situation. Some theaters on Broadway even have gender neutral bathrooms which do help bathroom lines.
All of this to say that what happened to Baker can easily be connected back to the transphobic rhetoric surrounding bathroom laws. Baker doesn’t fit their “standard” idea of what a woman should look like and so they assume she is not a woman. None of that helps anyone and is dangerous.
Since Baker released her story, the hotel had claimed that Baker and her girlfriend, Elizabeth Victor, were in the same stall. The hotel has since changed their statement, saying that they are donating proceeds to local LGBTQ+ organizations and have said that the security officer is suspended from his position.
“The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated. We will continue to educate and train of our team to ensure that everyone feels safe and accepted within our four walls and guests who do not show tolerance and acceptance towards others will be removed.”
Baker spoke with PEOPLE about the situation, describing the security guard by saying “I hadn’t even tied my shorts yet. I walked out and there was a security guard just standing in the middle of the bathroom right in front of my stall, telling me to get out, that I was a man in the women’s room.” She told the outlet that it was embarrassing and her “worst nightmare came true.”
(featured image: CBS News)
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