Thursday, October 11, 2007

When Gender Doesn't Matter

I was upset lately reading an article in the New York Times. A woman was kicked out of a women's restroom at a New York restaurant because someone had mistaken her for a man. A male bouncer came into the restroom and told her to leave. When she tried to show him her identification, he refused to look at it and proceeded to throw her and her companions out of the restaurant altogether. She is suing the restaurant, thank god.
The whole situation is unsettling. Even if she were a man, she wasn't causing any problems using the restroom. The male bouncer made more of a problem barging into the restroom than someone using it. The fact that he would not even glance at her id shows that even if it had said female, he wouldn't of cared or possibly even believed it. The problem didn't stop there. He followed her back to her table and made a scene so that her table left. This prejudice or snap judgment may have been from just one person, and not the restaurant, but I'm glad that this story is getting the publicity it deserves. No one should be treated this way regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, dress, status, you name it.

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