Restroom Use Sparks Controversy

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04a8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="06b63570.gif" border=0 width="99" height="87" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04b8dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Arial" ><B>Unity Committee</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Unity Committee"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Christie Littleton: Still Needs Help"><U>Christie Littleton: Still Needs Help</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Memorial For TG Fallen"><U>Memorial For TG Fallen</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Feminine Boy Shakes Up Small School"><U>Feminine Boy Shakes Up Small School</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="No Peace After Pat Doe Victory"><U>No Peace After "Pat Doe" Victory</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Transgender Student Wins Appeal!"><U>Transgender Student Wins Appeal!</U></A>   |   <B>Restroom Use Sparks Controversy</B>   |   <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TGs take Capitol Hill"><U>TGs take Capitol Hill</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04b8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>Restroom Use Sparks Controversy</I></div> <div> <B>The below article was attained from...</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.sptimes.com/mastheads/hernando.gif" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.sptimes.com/mastheads/hernand"><U><IMG SRC="06a6b240.gif" border=0 width="619" height="36" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>We want to thank the St. Petersburg Times for reporting the story in a respectful way and for using the proper female pronouns when referring to Ms. King.  Please visit their web site and contact them and thank them for the respectful way they reported this incident.  At the same time, it shows that none of us are safe, no matter how far into transitioning we are.  Everything was alright until one of Ms. King's acquaintances opened her mouth concerning her having been born with a body of the male sex.  That is why we must pull together as a unified group of individuals, even those who have transitioned fully and would prefer to hide in the woodwork of society, to fight for our rights to live in any gender role we desire in safety and without discrimination at the work place and in public establishments.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Restroom use sparks controversy at diner</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>What restrooms gay and transgendered people use creates a problem</B></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="347" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="343"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="343" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 323 WIDTH="343"><div> <IMG SRC="06959e80.gif" border=0 width="345" height="232" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> [Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]</div> <div> Aleisha King, who tends bar at Differences Pub in Spring Hill, is part way through a sex-change process and lives as a woman.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> By JENNIFER FARRELL </div> <div> © St. Petersburg Times, published November 15, 2000 </div> <bR> <div> SPRING HILL -- Inside the ladies' room, Aleisha King felt like one of the girls.  </div> <bR> <div> Standing in front of the mirror in a cocktail dress and heels, the blue-eyed redhead checked her hair and makeup and joined in on the after-hours banter among several exotic dancers who had gone to Denny's last month for breakfast after the late shift. </div> <div> It wasn't until King headed back to the table that the trouble started.</div> <div>  </div> <div> "She's pretty for a guy, isn't she?" shouted one of the dancers to a male friend across the dining room.  Then things turned ugly, King said. </div> <bR> <div> First, the man across the room shouted anti-gay slurs at King, 37, who is part way through the sex-change process and lives as a woman. Then, the man walked over, grabbed King's arm, spun her around and demanded to know if she was a man.  King, while hurt and embarrassed, thought the incident was over after restaurant employees called police and the man walked out of the restaurant. She had been a regular at Denny's on weekends for more than a year and had never before had a problem.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Two days later, though, the phone rang at Differences Pub on Kass Circle, where King tends bar and performs as a female impersonator. King said a night manager at Denny's talked first to her boss, then called back and told her that the ladies' room would be off-limits to King and other transgendered people who had frequented the restaurant on weekends after the pub closed at 2 a.m. The manager also suggested that Lynne Greene, who owns Differences, stand guard outside the bathroom door when King and the others went inside. </div> <div> To King, the new rules made no sense. "I can take my makeup off and still look like a woman," she said. "I know no other life." </div> <bR> <div> The problem escalated the following weekend, when a group from Differences went to Denny's after the pub's Oct. 29 Halloween party. </div> <div> This time, police were called when a disturbance erupted between employees and Jamie Benton, 41, a female impersonator and reigning Miss Gay Hernando. Benton, who also performs as a woman at Differences but lives as a man, said employees harassed him even though he took off his makeup and donned jeans and a T-shirt before going in the restaurant, then used the men's restroom when he got there. </div> <bR> <div> "They were telling me that I had come out of the women's restroom, really getting right up in my face," Benton said. "They were extremely rude. They embarrassed me."</div> <div>  </div> <div> After a loud scene, in which Benton said a cook yelled at him in front of a packed restaurant, the group of eight walked out of the restaurant, leaving their food on the table.  They have not been back</div> <div>  </div> <div> "Honey, if I went in there in drag and they want me to go to the men's restroom, I have no problem with it. That's fine with me just as long as I can go pee," Benton said last week. "If they had a problem with something, they should come up and say something, not carry on the way they did in front of the whole restaurant. There's a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things." </div> <bR> <div> King and Benton say the incidents prove that they will be harassed no matter what they do. They, along with other patrons of Differences, have organized a boycott of Denny's and are considering a civil rights complaint.  Denny's manager Bill Cushman declined to discuss specifics of the incidents. He confirmed that there had been problems at the restaurant stemming from men dressed as women using the ladies' room. </div> <bR> <div> "I believe we have it solved," he said last week. "They've been good guests for over a year . . . We're trying to accommodate them." </div> <bR> <div> But Greene disagrees. Her partner and co-owner of the pub, Elaine Wanker, used to work at Denny's and the couple were at the restaurant during both incidents. Greene is considering joining in a possible claim against Denny's. "They basically want us to go away," she said. "I feel that is discrimination." </div> <bR> <div> Jessica Archer, who is director of the Tampa-based Florida Organization for Gender Equality, said the incidents reflect a national trend of violence toward transgendered people and transsexuals.</div> <div>  </div> <div> "The rule is that you use the facility of the gender that you are presenting," she said. "That rule is based on safety." </div> <bR> <div> Archer said transgendered people often face ridicule and violence. On average, she said, more than one transgendered person has been attacked and killed every month in the United States since 1998. "This is a problem that is not just a problem of Spring Hill, but a problem of Florida and the nation," she said. "At some point we have to start putting aside our stereotypes and start appreciating people as human beings. Denny's has treated these people as walking stereotypes." </div> <bR> <div> In the early 1990s, the Denny's chain faced frequent charges it discriminated against African-American customers. In 1994, the chain agreed to pay $54-million to settle two class-action discrimination suits. Three years later, Denny's Spartanburg, S.C.-based parent firm, gave $1.5-million to nine civil rights organizations. </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>