By Brandon Truitt
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BOSTON (WBZ) — A Boston couple said they were the victim of transphobic actions and rhetoric over the weekend during an event at a local hotel.
Ansley Baker and her girlfriend, Liz Victor, went to a Kentucky Derby party at The Liberty Hotel on Saturday. The couple, who are both cis women, said their afternoon ended when hotel security searched the women’s restroom and allegedly asked them to show their IDs to prove their sex.
“It’s just humiliating overall,” Baker said.
Security guard enters bathroom The couple said they were in the women’s lobby bathroom when a male security guard came in and started banging on the stall doors. Baker said she was in one of the stalls while Victor waited for her near the sinks.
“All of a sudden there was banging on the door,” said Baker. “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 telling me I am a man in the women’s bathroom. I told him I was a woman.”
Victor said she heard the commotion and craned her neck around the corner to see what was happening. “I peered around the corner and saw one of the stall doors were open,” said Victor. “I saw her shoes and that’s when I was like what is going on?”
The couple walked out of the restroom with the security guard and passed several other women waiting in line who Baker recalled saying transphobic comments as she passed. “Someone said get him out of here, referring to me,” Baker recalled. “He’s a creep. Also referring to me.”
Couple told to leave hotel Once in the lobby, the couple said the security guard asked for their IDs to check the sex listed. Victor said things were heated and the couple was ultimately told to leave the hotel.
For its part, The Liberty Hotel said they were continuing to perform an internal investigation in this incident. Their full statement reads:
“An incident occurred at the Liberty Hotel on Saturday, May 3 where several women alerted security of two adults sharing a bathroom stall. The bathroom was cleared out as two adults in one stall are not permitted. After leaving the bathroom, a member of the couple from the stall put their hands on our security team and it was then that they were removed from the premises. The Liberty Hotel has a zero-tolerance policy for any physical altercations on our property. The safety of our guests and staff is our priority, and this event is under investigation. The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated.”
The couple vehemently denied being in the same stall.
“If that’s what he thought the issue was once he opened the stall door, obviously there was only one person in there, so it should’ve been case closed,” said Victor. “Let her tie up her shorts and go about her day.”
“A tale as old as time” Nina Selvaggio is the Executive Director of the Greater Boston PFLAG, and said this alleged incident is the result of ramped up rhetoric at the national level. Selvaggio pointed to a statistic that showed Massachusetts hate crimes have hit a 20-year high.
“For gender nonconforming, lesbians, women in general, being harassed in public restrooms is a tale as old as time. 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,” Selvaggio said.
The couple said they came forward with their story hoping to make a difference. “We know we are not the only one who 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,” said Baker.
Victor said, “It was a very scary situation, but trans women experience this every single day in the U.S. and across the world.”
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