NYC Trans Icon Claims Gay Bar Kicked Her Out for Using Women's Bathroom

WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — Boots and Saddle Drag Lounge, a beloved West Village gay bar open for over 40 years, is under fire from its core clientele this week, after a transgender patron claimed security kicked her out on Aug. 5 at the request of a woman who was uncomfortable with her using the woman's restroom.

"Security kicked me out... For simply peeing in the women's restroom," trans performer Valentine Steaphon wrote on Facebook last Friday night. "I am tired y'all. IM F**KING TIRED.. This is what we cater to."

Steaphon's post had soon been shared more than 100 times across Facebook. Hundreds more commenters vowed never to return to Boots and Saddle.

Initially, in response to Steaphon's claims, bar management issued a sweeping apology via Facebook, in which they promised to update their bathroom signage "to reflect what we have always believed that our restrooms are gender neutral."

The bar's apology post in full:

This morning, we became aware of a situation that occurred last night at our establishment Boots and Saddle Drag Lounge. We are saddened that a member of our LGBTQ community felt marginalized for using the restroom at our bar. For over 43 years Boots has been a champion for the rights of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. 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. All staff is being reminded that all patrons are to be treated with the utmost respect and sensitivity. We deeply regret this event ever occurred, and we will make sure this never happens again. The Owners and Management of Boots and Saddle Drag Lounge

By the following morning, though, Boots and Saddle had changed its tune.

"Now that we have finished conferring with eye witnesses and reviewed security footage," bar management wrote, "we can say without any holds this was NOT an issue of any gender using a restroom. This was simply a matter of two customers fighting in the middle of the Establishment and disturbing the peace. Both of which were removed."

Boots and Saddle then accused Steaphon of posting an "inaccurate account" of the incident.

But Steaphon is sticking by her story.

She again claimed in a comment on the bar's Facebook post that a woman had verbally attacked her in the bar's bathroom on Aug. 5, that the woman and her friend then screamed "transphobic things" in her face — and that a Boots and Saddle security guard agreed Steaphon shouldn't have been in the women's bathroom before kicking her out.

"It's very sad that you couldn't just simply apologize to me and we could have moved on from this, educated your staff and changed the gender markers in the bathrooms," Steaphon wrote. "Instead you're painting me out to seem like some belligerent liar."

She also posted the following commentary on the overall sense of fear in the transgender community right now:

Both Steaphon and bar management declined to comment for this story.

Last weekend's uproar over possible anti-trans sentiment at a gay hotspot in the liberal West Village comes on the heels of North Carolina House Bill 2, passed by the General Assembly on March 23. The law prohibits transgender people from using a public restroom reserved for the gender with which they identify, unless they've both surgically and legally changed their gender.

The American Civil Liberties Union described the Charlotte Bathroom Bill as "the most sweeping piece of anti-LGBT legislation in history."

New York Human Rights Law — which has long prohibited discrimination based on age, race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, marital status, sex, creed or disability — was updated last December to include a ban discrimination against gender identity or expression.

This update made it illegal for business owners, employers or landlords to deny transgender people the use of single-sex bathroom facilities. (Full text here.)

In the words of Mayor Bill de Blasio: “New York has always been a diverse and welcoming city and our laws are designed to protect every New Yorker, regardless of their gender identity."

Lead photo by Elvert Barnes