[Khadijah Farmer was mistaken for a man in the ladies' room at Caliente Cab Co. and shoved out by a bouncer.] Posted on 07/03/2007 10:11:56 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
A masculine lesbian was kicked out of a Greenwich Village restaurant after a bouncer - who believed she was a man - saw her in the ladies' bathroom, the woman charged yesterday.
Khadijah Farmer said she felt humiliated by her experience at Caliente Cab Co. on Seventh Ave., which took place last Sunday shortly after the city's gay pride march.
"I felt violated ... to say the least," said Farmer, 27. "I really thought that especially in New York City, especially in the heart of the Village, things like this had stopped happening."
Farmer said she went into the popular Mexican restaurant with her girlfriend and another pal about 10:20 p.m.
The trio ate shrimp and nachos before Farmer, who is 5-feet-5 and has short hair, excused herself to go to the rest room.
[Khadijah Farmer was mistaken for a man in the ladies' room at Caliente Cab Co. and shoved out by a bouncer.]
Just as she was about to enter the bathroom, a woman walked out, flashed her a nasty look and said, "This is the women's bathroom," according to Farmer, who is an HIV counselor.
"I replied, 'I know that. Thank you. This is where I'm supposed to be,'" Farmer said, noting that she was wearing a yellow polo shirt, blue jeans and sneakers.
Moments later, a bouncer burst into the ladies room and began banging on her stall and yelling at her to leave, she said.
The bouncer refused to believe that Farmer was a woman even after she emerged from the stall and attempted to show him her driver's license, she said.
"He totally dismissed that," she said, adding that the bouncer told her "he wanted me out of his bathroom and restaurant."
Farmer was then led out of the restaurant - and her friends were made to pay the bill for their abbreviated meal, she said.
Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, demanded that the restaurant compensate Farmer for violating her civil rights and adopt a policy banning discrimination.
A manager at the Caliente Cab Co. declined to comment.
"I'm comfortable with who I am," Farmer said. "I refuse to change. I don't do anything to accentuate any type of masculinity. I'm just me."
U-G-L-Y You ain’t got no alibi!
I see no breasts for a woman(?) of her size.
The bouncer was right. There should be no lawsuit against the company. This is not discrimination. This is not a “hate crime”, although I suspect that she will call it that.
Too flippin bad if she didn’t like her treatment.
She showed him the wrong thing.
Oh, come on! Who’s he trying to kid?
The bouncer is in need of sensitivity training. He should have looked under the stall door to see what direction his/her toes were pointed before determining what he/she was/is. Ha!
Looks like a dude to me
LOL. Ya beat me to it.
I was expecting something different.
Pat was a dyke, right?
I just don’t get it. I thought the point of being a lesbian was being attracted to women, not to somebody who looks more male than most males out there. If another woman is attracted to “that” why not just go after the real thing?
I pass that restaurant every morning on my way downtown. Always wondered what the food was like.
Yes, a huge one, just not where you would expect.
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