A bouncer from Medicine Hat, Alta., is sharing his side of the story after a transgender woman at the bar he worked at was told she couldn't use the women's bathroom.
Peter Smith handed in his two weeks’ notice at the Corona Tavern late Thursday afternoon. He said he had been upset since the incident made headlines this week, and that quitting was his only option since the bar owners told him he had to keep quiet.
The incident in question occurred a few weeks ago while River Rising, a 21-year-old transgender Calgarian was visiting the Corona.
Rising told reporters she had been approached by an employee at the bar who asked her several personal questions about her transition and then told her not to use the women’s washroom anymore.
Rising was appalled especially after learning that a sign had been posted near the bar’s washrooms advising customers to use “the bathroom of their birth gender.”
Her story sparked a backlash of anger, with some calling the bar’s management “disgusting” and saying the bar had violated Bill 7, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender expression and gender identity.
Now, Smith has tendered his resignation.
Smith says he had been asked by bar management to talk to Rising.
"I asked her about her surgery," said Smith. "Had she answered post-op, it would have ended there. I asked to clarify the matter. Had she said post-op, use the woman's bathroom all you want. She identified herself to me as a male."
Smith says he hasn't been able to sleep since the incident became public.
He says he's always been a friend of the LGBTQ community and was upset when Rising's friends swore at him and called him a homophobe and a transphobe.
“Worst of all they called me a hateful bigot. Anybody who knows me knows I'm none of those things,” Smith said.
As for the bar, it has since made one of its bathrooms "gender-neutral."
While the bar’s management refused to speak to CTV News on camera, it did release a statement to say it had received “numerous” complaints of men entering the women’s washroom since Bill 7 was passed last December.
“The clientele that we serve are often under the influence of alcohol and some young men who are not trangendered [sic] have been claiming to be, to enter the women’s washroom. This has caused some young female patrons to feel unsafe and threatened,” the bar managers wrote in a Facebook statement.
“We have no bias against those who are LGBTQ and in fact have always been proud to serve this population within our business, even supporting the PRIDE festival in past years. We are saddened by this situation and had no intention of making any human feel unsafe.”
