While visiting a hotel in Boston, two cis women were forcibly ejected by a security guard for using the “wrong” bathroom. After initially backing the security guard, the hotel has backpedalled, saying it has taken steps to ensure a space “where everyone is welcome and celebrated.”
On May 3, Ansley Baker visited Boston’s Liberty Hotel with her partner Liz Victor for a Kentucky Derby party. At one point, Baker used the women’s restroom, and a male security guard followed her inside, demanding that she “prove” her gender.
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Victor originally shared the couple’s story in a Google review, per Boston.com. “She (Baker) was humiliated and physically confronted while still inside the stall, pulling up her pants, and forced to show ID to ‘prove’ her sex,” Victor wrote. “Even after verifying she is a woman, we were both ejected from the event entirely, while shaken, crying, and publicly shamed.”
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“No guests stepped in,” Victor added. “No staff de-escalated the situation. No compassion was shown. This was not just unprofessional — it was traumatizing, discriminatory, and dehumanizing. My partner and I are devastated.”
The couple elaborated on their experience in an interview with CBS News. “All of a sudden there was banging on the door,” Baker recalled. “I pulled my shorts up. I hadn’t even tied them. One of the security guards was there telling me to get out of the bathroom, that I was a man in the women’s bathroom. I said, ‘I’m a woman.'”
After getting out of the stall, the security guard escorted her out of the restroom, where she passed other women in line who made derogatory and misgendering comments towards her.
“Someone said, ‘Get him out of here,’ referring to me. ‘He’s a creep,’ also referring to me,” Baker said.
Once in the lobby, the security guard demanded their IDs to verify that they were both women. Although the couple complied, they were forced to leave after the argument grew heated, Victor recalled.
“It was a very scary situation, but trans women experience this every single day in the US and across the world,” Victor said.
Even if Baker had been trans, Boston has no laws preventing trans women from using women’s restrooms. This may explain why the Liberty Hotel alleged other reasons why the women were forced to leave. The initial statement claimed that the security guard confronted them not because of gender, but because two adults were sharing a stall. The hotel also alleged one of the women “put their hands on our security team.” Both claims, the couple said, were based on the security guard’s word over theirs.
On May 6, the Liberty Hotel shared an updated statement with Boston.com, saying that it had concluded its investigation and suspended the security guard. The hotel also pledged a donation to an LGBTQ+ charity and to implement “mandatory retraining for all staff on inclusive practices and guest interaction protocols, with a particular focus on creating a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQ+ individuals.”
“The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated,” the statement continued. “We will continue to educate and train our team to ensure that everyone feels safe and accepted within our four walls and guests who do not show tolerance and acceptance towards others will be removed.
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