Minnesota teen says server forced her to prove her gender in restaurant bathroom
As I keep repeating these bathroom bills hurt cis women because it is based solely on how someone looks to some other people. If as in this case a cis woman did not look feminine enough for the server and so this woman was forced to show her breasts. How is that feminism work going TERF people. These bathroom bills and the hype of fake false stories of danger to women only make all women less safe. See now people that look like men legally might have to use a female’s bathroom, so all a cis man has to say is he is trans and they can legally be in the woman’s bathroom. Same for any female that wants to go into the men’s room only needs to claim to be a trams women. All due to hate and bigotry making a problem where none existed. Think of it, the only assaults I have heard about in female restrooms is from cis people attacking cis females because they think they are trans. Hugs
The 18-year-old high school student said she unzipped her hoodie to show she had breasts after a Buffalo Wild Wings server didn’t believe she is a woman.
A Minnesota teenager filed a charge of discrimination against a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant Tuesday, alleging a server followed her into the women’s restroom and demanded she “prove” she was a girl.
Gerika Mudra, 18, went to dinner in April with a friend in Owatonna, about an hour south of Minneapolis. When she went to the restroom, a server followed her inside and banged on the stall door while saying: “This is a women’s restroom. The man needs to get out of here,” according to Gender Justice, a Minnesota gender-equality organization that filed the charge on Mudra’s behalf.
Gerika Mudra, 18, says she was harassed by a server who accused her of being a boy in the girls’ bathroom.Gender Justice
Mudra, a biracial lesbian who isn’t transgender, said that she has been in similar situations before, when people have suggested she’s in the wrong restroom, but that when she tells them she’s a woman they leave her alone. However, when she came out of the stall at Buffalo Wild Wings and told the server, “I am a lady,” she said, the server responded, “You have to get out now,” Gender Justice said in a statement.
Mudra said she felt she had to prove to the server that she is a woman, so she unzipped her hoodie to show she has breasts. The server didn’t say anything in response but left the restroom, Mudra said.
“She made me feel very uncomfortable,” Mudra said. “After that, I just don’t like going in public bathrooms. I just hold it in. … I want to be able to use the bathroom in peace.”
Inspire Brands, which represents Buffalo Wild Wings, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Buffalo Wild Wings in Owatonna, Minn.Google Maps
Gender Justice filed the charge of discrimination with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, arguing that what happened to Mudra violates the state’s Human Rights Act, which protects people from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, among other protected statuses.
Sara Jane Baldwin, senior staff attorney at Gender Justice, said at a news conference Tuesday that even though Mudra isn’t trans, the server’s actions “were based on assumptions that she made about” Mudra, and that Minnesota’s law protects against discrimination based on stereotypes or assumptions about protected characteristics like gender identity.
“Businesses have a legal obligation not to just have antidiscrimination policies on paper, but to train staff and ensure that those policies are followed in real time,” Baldwin said. “When that doesn’t happen, the business is liable for the harm caused.”
Gender Justice said Mudra’s experience “reflects a broader climate of fear and suspicion aimed at anyone who doesn’t conform to narrow expectations of what girls and women ‘should’ look like.” That suspicion has been driven largely by the wave of state legislation targeting trans people, particularly their access to school sports and bathrooms that align with their gender identities, though Minnesota hasn’t enacted any such legislation.
Nineteen states have laws that prohibit trans people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identities in K-12 schools, and in many of those states the restrictions apply to other government-owned buildings, as well, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Twenty-seven states prohibit trans people from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identities.
“This kind of gender policing is, unfortunately, nothing new,” Megan Peterson, executive director at Gender Justice, said in a statement. “And yet, in our current climate we have to ask: What if Gerika had been a trans person? Would this story have ended differently? That’s the terrifying reality too many trans people live with every day.”
Even if Mudra had been trans, she would be able to file a discrimination complaint under state law in Minnesota, which is one of 21 states and Washington, D.C., that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Two states explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation only, and six additional states interpret existing measures against discrimination based on sex to also include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Twenty-one states don’t have explicit protections from discrimination based on gender identity in public accommodations.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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6 thoughts on “Minnesota teen says server forced her to prove her gender in restaurant bathroom”
When this happens to cis people (the ones who aren’t transphobic,) they need to sue everyone within an inch of their lives for it, until it stops. Probably wouldn’t hurt to call police themselves, to report harassment and threat. No one has the right to do that. If the server was truly alarmed, they should have gone to management, and if not satisfied with that, called the police. Seriously, the cis people just letting this happen is what’s going to get body police searching everyone.
Only an actual man is going to try to force his way into a woman’s bathroom, claiming to be trans. Trans women are women, and they’re not going to do that. They belong in the women’s room. However, women-cis, trans, whoever-have historically been unsafe from men going wherever they want. Transwomen did not cause that, unless they raised a boy into a man who does that. Transphobes are just making it easier for men to do what transphobes say they want to impede, which shouldn’t happen to anyone, even a transphobe. (WP keeps wanting to make that “transphone.” Is that a real thing?)
Hi Ali. Well said. It is what I have been saying. Plus for the trans men who pass as men they would have to go into a women’s restroom so think how uncomfortable everyone would be in that situation. Plus as you said it makes it easier for a man who wants to harass women to walk into a woman’s private area claiming to be trans. It just makes everyone unsafe. I am listening to The Majority Report talking about the situation I posted. They agree with all of what you said. As Matt Leche said everyone should mind their own business and just keep walking. Hugs
I really think that, possibly excepting Elliott Page, trans men can continue to pass and use the restroom they ought to use. Really, think about it. Who’s gonna question those buff guys? They only pick on the women. Same as it ever is.
Hi Ali. Sadly the focus on females / girls is totally about the fragile frail male ego and misogyny. First these people always talk about “a man in the bathroom / dressing room with your little daughter” Fear fear be afraid for your little girl. The other side of the coin is the fear some men have of losing the status they think having a penis gives them. The idea of males being higher in the hierarchy than females. People who think men are better than women can not understand a boy / man willingly giving up that higher status to become a lessor girl / woman. These same men tremble at the idea of losing their penis as it is the symbol of their higher rank in society in their minds. That is why you never hear about trans boys in “your little boy’s bathroom / dressing room” because they can understand why a woman would want to be a man and they simply can’t see a trans boy as a threat to another boy. It is stupid because woman can be predators as much as a man can. But as you said no one is going to question the trans who pass as their gender, but I worry about those that are not trans who are accused of it. Think of the preteen early teen years and often boys and girls look androgynous and their gender is not clear at a glance. Will we see a push for gender inspections of kids at sports events and public bathrooms? Scary. Hugs
Oh and yes Ali. Transphone is a real thing and many companies offer software to help. It just means to transfer something from one phone to another phone. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 
When this happens to cis people (the ones who aren’t transphobic,) they need to sue everyone within an inch of their lives for it, until it stops. Probably wouldn’t hurt to call police themselves, to report harassment and threat. No one has the right to do that. If the server was truly alarmed, they should have gone to management, and if not satisfied with that, called the police. Seriously, the cis people just letting this happen is what’s going to get body police searching everyone.
Only an actual man is going to try to force his way into a woman’s bathroom, claiming to be trans. Trans women are women, and they’re not going to do that. They belong in the women’s room. However, women-cis, trans, whoever-have historically been unsafe from men going wherever they want. Transwomen did not cause that, unless they raised a boy into a man who does that. Transphobes are just making it easier for men to do what transphobes say they want to impede, which shouldn’t happen to anyone, even a transphobe. (WP keeps wanting to make that “transphone.” Is that a real thing?)
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Hi Ali. Well said. It is what I have been saying. Plus for the trans men who pass as men they would have to go into a women’s restroom so think how uncomfortable everyone would be in that situation. Plus as you said it makes it easier for a man who wants to harass women to walk into a woman’s private area claiming to be trans. It just makes everyone unsafe. I am listening to The Majority Report talking about the situation I posted. They agree with all of what you said. As Matt Leche said everyone should mind their own business and just keep walking. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really think that, possibly excepting Elliott Page, trans men can continue to pass and use the restroom they ought to use. Really, think about it. Who’s gonna question those buff guys? They only pick on the women. Same as it ever is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ali. Sadly the focus on females / girls is totally about the fragile frail male ego and misogyny. First these people always talk about “a man in the bathroom / dressing room with your little daughter” Fear fear be afraid for your little girl. The other side of the coin is the fear some men have of losing the status they think having a penis gives them. The idea of males being higher in the hierarchy than females. People who think men are better than women can not understand a boy / man willingly giving up that higher status to become a lessor girl / woman. These same men tremble at the idea of losing their penis as it is the symbol of their higher rank in society in their minds. That is why you never hear about trans boys in “your little boy’s bathroom / dressing room” because they can understand why a woman would want to be a man and they simply can’t see a trans boy as a threat to another boy. It is stupid because woman can be predators as much as a man can. But as you said no one is going to question the trans who pass as their gender, but I worry about those that are not trans who are accused of it. Think of the preteen early teen years and often boys and girls look androgynous and their gender is not clear at a glance. Will we see a push for gender inspections of kids at sports events and public bathrooms? Scary. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh and yes Ali. Transphone is a real thing and many companies offer software to help. It just means to transfer something from one phone to another phone. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not the subject of my writing!😂
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