NYC Bar ‘Boot and Saddles’ is Accused of Booting a Trans Person

Mathew Rodriguez posted on internet Magazine MIC  a story about something I would not nor many of others would think, an old institution bar like “Boots” in NYC will be a violator of an LGBT with emphasizes on the “T” civil and human rights.  The story or complaint is between a Trans person and  this non trans-woman mentioned on the story  which if true she had no idea of what LGBT people are and may be she thinks we are just here to entertain her but the sad part is that the staff that night at “Boots” seems to feel the same way if the allegations are true and I am not saying they are,  instead I will repost because I find the story disturbing and will leave it up to you to decide. I’m posting most of the story as it appeared at MIC and there is also a part (with links) with OUT which carries a limited response front the bar and a Facebook response in which they seem to finally address part of what is needed to insure that similar incidents do not occur again. Good signage and education to the staff and particularly the manager or head bartender in charge with a food camera system should easily solve the unnecessary problem. If a person fell on the floor  I am sure there is a system of filling an incident report in case they (establishment) got sued. This type of incident should have the same precedent. As a community we sometimes act like the world is ours because we have been discriminated and somehow we can get away with certain language and behavior that other people can’t. Instead we find law enforcement and the media willing to highlight incidents like this to hammer in that we are not that great people and not deserving of equality. Maybe we are not that great maybe we are but we should be asking to be treated equally with respect and we will equally respect others.

I most add before you read the posting from the Transgender party of allegedly being booted out of the bar because of a bathroom gender-use issue I most caution you that the bar responded to this allegation and said(as you will read below) that the issue was not a bathroom gender use issue but an altercation. 

I am experienced enough to know that the tendency of these type of places is to mix any issue inside the bar in which there is a loud disagreement into the altercation or fight corral or label issue.  I know of people that have been beaten at gay bars back in Miami, Fl. by staff and friends of staff then thrown out with injuries and when police responded  no body knew anything except there was a fight or altercation and only one party is fingered and the other party is gone, disappeared and no body knew them. Leaving the injured person to fight alone the allegation. 

I wish this establishment would have done more to document this issue and the injured party would have taken the time to either bring the police in to file a report or the bare minimum to have witnesses willing to go on the record to document her case. To latter vent about this without thinking what is needed to make a claim believable makes it hard to take either party seriously.
Adam@adamoxie.com  

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On Friday evening, transgender performer Valentine Steaphon took to Facebook to share her experience of being kicked out of New York City gay bar Boots and Saddle in the West Village. According to Steaphon’s account, a cisgender woman confronted her as she emerged from the women's bathroom on Friday night. 

"HOLY SHIT!! I just got kicked out of BOOTS and SADDLE for using the women's restroom. WOWW... So like I'm taking a piss and walk out, there stands a cis women eye balling me. Next thing I hear before washing my hands: "WHY ARE YOU IN HERE? YOU DONT HAVE A PUSSY..?!" Me, shocked and RUPAULED: excuse me?! You don't know what's in my pants? You're in an LGBT space, we use the restrooms accordingly. Her: I DONT CARE YOU SHOULDNT BE IN HERE! Me: uh ok, bitch. Chill. I had to pee. 
Her: BITCH?? Really how dare you call me a bitch *storms out the restroom to her friends and the security, whines that she was uncomfortable in the restroom because she saw me in there. 

Security and her friend come up to me: WELL.. WE CATER TO STRAIGHT WOMEN SO IF THEY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE WITH YOU IN THE BATHROOM YOURE THE PROBLEM,

Her basic ass gay friend yelling at me: IF YOU DONT HAVE TITTYS OR A PUSSY YOU ARENT TRANS GET OVER IT, GET OUT OF HERE!!

Security kicked me out... For simply peeing in the women's restroom. I am tired y'all. IM FUCKING TIRED.. This is what we cater to.  Fuck it all I’ve just lost all hope for some of these establishments"

 Steaphon and the woman exchanged words before the woman grabbed a security guard and began to explain that Steaphon's presence in the women's restroom made her "uncomfortable."  

"I think she wanted to fight; she just seemed really angry," Steaphon told Mic in a phone interview. "I just told her that you're in an LGBT space and we use the bathrooms how we want to use the bathrooms here."

She added, "She didn't want to hear it." 

Steaphon said she did not go to Boots and Saddle often, but was there to support a friend of hers who was performing at the drag lounge. 

According to Steaphon, the security guard told her that, "We cater to straight women here, and if you're in the women's restroom and she's uncomfortable, you're the problem, you can't be in there." 

For Steaphon, having to defend herself also meant having to educate those who were
 berating her, including another member of the LGBT community. She said that, as the cis woman spoke
to the security guard, a gay friend of hers berated Steaphon and questioned her gender identity.

 "The girl and her gay friends are yelling at me, saying 'You shouldn't be in there,' and 'Unless

you have titties and a vagina, you should not be in there, you're not trans,'" Steaphon told Mic. 

 "I feel like a lot of gay guys don't want to hear it. They don't know what makes someone trans."

   She added, “ I was kind of glad that it wasn't one of my friends because I feel like no one should have gone through that.  I was angry, I was disgusted, I was sad, I was confused. I was every kind of emotion in that moment."

Boots and Saddle did not respond to a request for comment from Mic, but they did address the incident with a post on their Facebook page.  

"We are saddened that a member of our LGBTQ community felt marginalized for using the restroom at our bar," the post reads. "We expect that every person who walks into our establishment feels safe and respected. To that end, we are taking measures to ensure that such an incident never happens again. Our signage is being updated to reflect what we have always believed — that our restrooms are gender neutral."

A manager from the bar told Out that the patrons — Steaphon and the other party involved in the altercation — were asked to leave the bar. 

"This is not an incident regarding whether or not a certain gender could use the restroom," the manager told Out. 

New York City recently debuted a citywide campaign educating New Yorkers that transgender  people are legally allowed to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. 

Though people may consider New York City a liberal bastion, that has not prevented some transgender New Yorkers from facing discrimination. In May, trans New Yorker Pearl Love shared video of a vile transphobic attack she faced on the subway.