Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund’s executive director Michael Silverman, left, and openly gay Khadijah Farmer hold a press conference Monday outside Caliente Cab Company in the West Village. Farmer claims a bouncer kicked her out of the eatery, pictured below, on Gay Pride, June 24, because he thought she was a man using the women’s restroom. Photos: Wanda Shazadi.
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By Brett Krutzsch
Friday, July 06, 2007
A driver’s license is typically presented in restaurants only to prove you’re old enough to drink alcohol. But New York City resident Khadijah Farmer felt compelled to show identification for another reason: to prove she was female.
It didn’t help.
Farmer, who is a lesbian, said a bouncer for Caliente Cab Company kicked her out of the restaurant on Gay Pride, June 24, because he believed she was a man using the women’s restroom.
“I shouldn’t be harassed when I’m just trying to do something everyone in the world does,” Farmer said. “I would like Caliente Cab to adopt policies to prohibit discrimination, and re-train the staff. Education kills ignorance.”
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) is representing Farmer in a suit against the restaurant, but Farmer is not a transgender individual. She was born female, and fully identifies as a woman.
“Discrimination against transgender people, or gay men and lesbians who do not conform to gender norms, has no place in New York City,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of TLDEF.
He and Farmer held a press conference Monday, July 2, outside the restaurant.
“We’ve demanded that Caliente Cab Company take steps to address this discrimination immediately to ensure that it does not happen again,” Silverman said.
Specifically, TLDEF is demanding that Caliente Cab Company enforce a policy barring discrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation; train its staff to comply with all laws protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons; and, compensate Farmer for the violation of her civil rights.
Farmer recounted her experience at the restaurant. She said that after attending the Pride march Sunday she had dinner with friends at the Caliente Cab Company, a Mexican restaurant on Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village. Farmer said that she excused herself to go to the bathroom, and while in a stall, a male bouncer employed by Caliente Cab entered the women’s restroom and banged on her stall door.
“He said he was told there was a guy in the woman’s restroom,” Farmer recalled. “It was ironic, because it turned out the only guy in the bathroom was him.”
Farmer said that she offered to show the bouncer, whom she described as “hostile and aggressive,” identification proving that she was in the correct bathroom, but that he said, “That is neither here nor there.
“The bouncer told me to hurry up and pay the tab, and then escorted my friends, girlfriend, and me out of the restaurant,” Farmer said. “I asked to speak to the manager and was told the bouncer was the manager. I asked for his name, and he wouldn’t give it.”
Caliente Cab Company was contacted for this story, but a spokesperson said, “We aren’t issuing comments at this time.”
Farmer says the incident was horrifying and embarrassing. “My night was destroyed,” she said. “It is inconceivable that in 2007 this would happen.”
Silverman says that Caliente Cab “is not interested in doing anything, and so far they’ve basically said to take a walk.”
TLDEF reached an agreement earlier this year with the discount clothing franchise Loehmann’s after a transgender customer was denied access to facilities at the chain’s Seventh Avenue store. Loehmann’s new policy is to allow customers to use fitting rooms, restrooms and other store facilities that are consistent with their gender identity or expression.
The New York City Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender, including appearance, behavior and expression.
Additionally, the New York State Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sex and sexual orientation.
“The very fact that I was kicked out of the restaurant reeks of discrimination,” Farmer said. “I just wanted to go to dinner, enjoy myself, and be able to go to the bathroom. It makes me sad that this happened on Gay Pride.”
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