Cisgender woman says her gender was questioned in a Boston hotel restroom

A cisgender woman says her gender was questioned by a security guard in a hotel restroom in Boston over the weekend.

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Ansley Baker and her girlfriend, Liz Victor, both cis women, were attending a Kentucky Derby party Saturday at the Liberty Hotel, Boston CBS affiliate WBZ reports. Baker was in a stall in the lobby restroom while Victor waited for her by the sinks when a man from security entered the restroom and began banging on the stall doors, the women said.

“All of a sudden there was banging on the door,” Baker told WBZ. “I pulled my shorts up. I hadn’t even tied them. One of the security guards was there telling me to get out of the bathroom, that I was a man in the women’s bathroom. I said, ‘I’m a woman.’”

The guard escorted Baker out of the restroom while women waiting in line made derogatory comments, she said. “Someone said, ‘Get him out of here,’ referring to me. ‘He’s a creep,’ also referring to me,” Baker said.

Once the women were in the lobby, the guard asked for their IDs so he could verify their gender. “Victor said things grew heated and the couple was ultimately told to leave the hotel,” the TV station reports.

The Liberty Hotel released a statement Monday saying security received a complaint about two adults sharing a restroom stall. Baker and Victor said they were not together in the stall.

Hotel officials followed up with a statement Tuesday saying they had investigated the incident and the guard had been suspended. They also said they are making a donation to an LGBTQ+ organization in the area and that hotel workers are receiving renewed training “on inclusive practices and guest interaction protocols.”

“The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated,” the statement said. “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.”

Nina Selvaggio, executive director of Greater Boston PFLAG, told WBZ the incident reflects anti-LGBTQ+ and specifically anti-transgender rhetoric around the nation, even in liberal Massachusetts.

“For gender-nonconforming [people], lesbians, women in general, being harassed in public restrooms is a tale as old as time,” Selvaggio said. “I do think the surge in national anti-trans rhetoric is contributing to an increased policing of women’s bodies and their expression of gender.”

Victor told the station, “It was a very scary situation, but trans women experience this every single day in the U.S. and across the world.”

Baker noted, “We know we’re not the only ones that face this kind of thing and just hope it doesn’t happen again and that other people who go through this receive the same support.”