Minnesota teen says server forced her to prove her gender in restaurant bathroom
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.
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.
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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.
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.
Even before such laws, trans people had long reported facing harassment in public restrooms and avoided using them as a result. There have been several reports this year of women who aren’t transgender alleging harassment in public restrooms because they were suspected of being trans, including at the U.S. Capitol in January, Phoenix in February, Florida in March and Boston in May.
“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.
‘Now you question every restaurant you walk into’: Group speaks out after alleged racist incident at Buffalo Wild Wings
No lawsuit has been filed against the company, but the group wants change.
November 6, 2019, 2:16 AM
12:40
Large group describes racist incident at Buffalo Wild WingsMore than a dozen friends and family members said they were told to move tables because a regular patron didn’t want to sit by black people.
WLS
The attorney representing a group that said they were asked to move seats at an Illinois Buffalo Wild Wings because of their race is calling for the company to be “trailblazers” when it comes to standing up to racism.
“We are hoping, in fact, we are expecting that they will be good corporate citizens and take the opportunity to do the right thing … We are looking to change things,” attorney Cannon D. Lambert said at a press conference Tuesday.
Justin Vahl and Marcus Riley said at the press conference that they were among a group of 18 people, including children aged 5 to 12, who were asked to go to another table because a customer didn’t “want to sit around black people.”
“Now you question every restaurant you walk into,” Riley said.
The alleged incident occurred on Oct. 26 at a Buffalo Wild Wings in the Chicago suburb of Naperville.
(MORE: Buffalo Wild Wings fires employees after alleged incident of racism)
Vahl and Riley said the group eventually left after being asked multiple other times to move.
“A couple of the kids asked what was going on, if they were getting kicked out,” Riley said.
The restaurant franchise said in a statement Monday that the employees involved were fired and the customer “who exhibited the inappropriate behavior” was banned from all Buffalo Wild Wings locations for life.
“Buffalo Wild Wings values an inclusive environment and has zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind … Buffalo Wild Wings will conduct sensitivity training throughout our Chicagoland sports bars in response to this incident,” the statement read. The company did not respond on Tuesday to ABC News’ request for further comment.
Lambert urged the company to do more.
(MORE: Employees quit store in protest after alleged racism by manager)
“We are not surprised that you are instituting sensitivity training. We are surprised there wasn’t any already in place,” Lambert said at the press conference.
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“If you’re telling us you’re banning a couple, well, we’d like to know how,” Lambert added.
The attorney said Buffalo Wild Wings should establish an accountability system and adopt new procedures when hiring potential employees, including asking candidates how they would deal with a racially-charged situation.
A lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings has not yet been filed, and Lambert said there would be no need to do so if the company agreed to speak with the group and admit “this should have never happened.”
(MORE: Two women at Burger King tell manager to ‘go back to Mexico’: Video )
Ashley Smith, another member of the party during the alleged incident, was overcome with emotion as she tried to speak about how the children are holding up.
“To see them try to understand is hurtful. They should not have to understand. You look at these boys and they are all different and they need to know that’s okay,” Smith said through tears.
Six children were present for the press conference and could be seen crying after Smith spoke.
