A woman filed a
civil rights lawsuit against a popular Greenwich Village
neighborhood restaurant Tuesday, claiming a bouncer chased
her out of the women's bathroom because she looked too
masculine.
Khadijah Farmer,
who was at the Caliente Cab Company after New York
City's gay pride parade last June, said the bouncer ran into
the bathroom, pounded on the stall door, and demanded
that she leave. He told her a customer complained a
man was in the women's room.
''I told him I
was a woman, and I tried to show him my I.D.,'' Farmer
said at a news conference. ''He refused to look at it. I was
extremely uncomfortable and quite humiliated.''
Caliente Cab
Company released a statement denying the discrimination
claim and said Farmer's ''primary interest'' was money.
''There has been
no discrimination or violation of anyone's civil rights
or human dignity by Caliente Cab Company or anyone employed
here,'' the restaurant's statement said.
Farmer's lawyer,
Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense and
Education Fund, says his client is asking for unspecified
damages and demanding that the restaurant train its
staff not to discriminate on the basis of gender
identity.
Farmer said she
knows she looks like a man with her closely cropped hair
and male clothing. She said people usually apologize after
making the mistake, but the bouncer told her, ''I want
you out of this restroom and out of this restaurant.''
Farmer, a
counselor at a residential program for people with
disabilities, said she was suing under city and state
human-rights laws to prevent other people from having
to endure similar humiliation. (AP)
