Security guards at a Boston Marriott Hotel have been accused of entering a female restroom and accusing a woman of being a man, then demanding to see her ID to verify she was actually a woman.

Security Guard Demands ID From Woman In Marriott Restroom—Then It Gets Worse

A couple of you forwarded this story to me yesterday and I thought I’d just avoid talking about it, but I see my colleagues have discussed it this morning and so I’ll add my thoughts.

A lesbian couple was staying at the Liberty Hotel Boston, part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection. The two of them, both of whom are biological women who identify as women, went into a restroom together. That prompted at least one other hotel guest to “report” the couple, with the assumption that one of the women was a man.

As Ansley Baker used the toilet, she told CBS that she suddenly heard pounding:

“All of a sudden there was banging on the door. 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.’”

Security demanded to see the IDs of the woman to verify her gender, which prompted a heated discussion, resulting in both women being asked to leave.

While the hotel initially accused the women of sharing a stall (“several women alerted security of two adults sharing a bathroom stall”), it has since fired the security guards and said:

“The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated. We will continue to educate and train of 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.”

The hotel has also promised to retrain staff “on inclusive practices and guest interaction protocols.” The couple insists they were not sharing a stall, but the hotel has not clarified this particular aspect of the story.

What To Make Of This?

Let’s be real here, can we? If you watch the video above or look at the picture I have included, she “looks” like a man in the sense that her features are androgynous and she has a hairstyle and wears clothing that, at least in the West, are more likely to be worn by a man than a woman. Her build also resembles a more typical male than female. I understand the concerns that the security guard was “damned if he did, damned if he did not” (had it been a man in the restroom or had the two been sharing a stall) if multiple women complained about this person.

While I don’t want perverts in restrooms, I cannot help but note the irony of a man entering a woman’s restroom and then banging on a bathroom stall and demanding ID. How does it help the safety of all women if women must be afraid of a male security guard harassing them in the bathroom if he or someone else does not like the way they look? Would a trans woman who looked very feminine have no issue, even if that person urinated standing up?

Increasingly, we see gender neatural restrooms with each stall totally private, a solution I far prefer not for any political or social reason, but for the privacy…who wants to have people nearby you when you are taking care of business?

I don’t know that there’s a good solution here, though I don’t like security guards barging into restrooms and I also don’t tend to look around when I’m in a restroom and scope out who else is there (I’ll leave that to Larry Craig!).

CONCLUSION

A Marriott hotel in Boston has apologized after its security guards accused a woman of being a man. While I have some sympathy for the security guard doing his job, I wish this had been handled differently, and think that banging on restroom stalls is more of a danger than a female using a female restroom who might look like a man to most people.

image: Ansley Baker / Facebook