A couple said they were embarrassed and offended after they were ordered to leave a high-end hotel in Boston over the weekend. The women said a security guard at The Liberty Hotel challenged their use of a bathroom.
Ansley Baker and her girlfriend, Liz Victor, went to a Kentucky Derby party at the hotel Saturday. The couple, who are both cis women, said their afternoon ended when hotel security searched the women’s restroom and allegedly asked them to show their identification to prove their sex.
“It’s just humiliating overall,” Baker said.
Liberty Hotel women’s bathroom incident
The couple said they were in the women’s lobby bathroom when a male security guard came in and started banging on the stall doors. Baker said she was in one of the stalls while Victor waited for her near the sinks.
“All of a sudden there was banging on the door,” said Baker. “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.'”
Victor heard the commotion and looked around the corner to see what was happening.
“I looked down and I saw her shoes and that’s when I was like, ‘What is going on?'” she said.
Baker was born a woman and identifies as a woman. But, she said she was escorted out of the restroom and then comments were directed at her from other women waiting in line.
“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 couple said the security guard asked for their IDs to check their gender. Victor said things grew heated and the couple was ultimately told to leave the hotel.
CBS Boston 
Liberty Hotel security guard suspended
On Tuesday morning, The Liberty Hotel said it has finished an investigation into the incident and “the security officer is being suspended from their position.” It said all staff are being retrained “on inclusive practices and guest interaction protocols.” The hotel is also making a donation to a local LGBTQ+ organization.
“The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated,” the hotel said in a statement. “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.”
In an earlier statement on Monday, the hotel had said “several women alerted security of two adults sharing a bathroom stall.” That statement also claimed that one member of the couple put their hands on the security team, resulting in them being kicked off the property.
The couple vehemently denied being in the same stall.
“If that’s what he thought the issue was once he opened the stall door, obviously there was only one person in there, so it should’ve been case closed,” Victor said. “Let her tie up her shorts and go about her day.”
In a statement Tuesday evening, the couple said, “We have not seen any public statement with an apology nor a retraction of their original claims to clarify that Ansley was the only one in the stall.”
“A tale as old as time”
Nina Selvaggio, the Executive Director of the Greater Boston PFLAG, said this incident is the result of ramped up rhetoric at the national level. Selvaggio pointed to a statistic that showed Massachusetts hate crimes have hit a 20-year high.
“For gender nonconforming, lesbians, women in general, being harassed in public restrooms is a tale as old as time. I do think the surge in national anti-trans rhetoric is contributing to an increased policing of women’s bodies and their expression of gender,” Selvaggio said.
The couple said they came forward with their story hoping to make a difference.
“We know we’re not the only ones that face this kind of thing and just hope it doesn’t happen again and that other people who go through this receive the same support,” said Baker.
Victor said, “it was a very scary situation, but trans women experience this every single day in the U.S. and across the world.”
