As if visiting the women’s restroom during a concert wasn’t annoying enough, a lady security guard at Los Angeles’ Staples Center allegedly decided that one Carrie Underwood fan wasn’t quite feminine enough for her liking. That’s when she decided to go above and beyond her normal guardly duties by harassing the lady in the bathroom.
Mary Looper, a lesbian (probably not really pertinent to the story, but pointed out in the originating article, so there you go) says in a Facebook post last week that she and her aunt went to a Carrie Underwood concert at the Staples Center last Wednesday. Unfortunately, when she decided to visit the lady’s room things took an awkward turn. She says that a female guard decided that she didn’t really look like a Mary and tried to demand she prove she was a woman.
Ugh.
From Mary’s original Facebook post.
Usually I don’t want to put my drama out there but ignorant people still exist and it breaks my heart… They literally just tried to escort me out of the women’s restroom at the #staplescenter… Shame on them.
In a follow up post, Mary points out that despite the trouble, the show was great.
After word got out about the incident and several LGBT websites picked up the story, people started commenting on the Staples Center’s Facebook page and showing support on Mary’s posts. At one point, Mary thanked her friends and explained a bit more of what allegedly happened (quote via PinkNews).
“Thanks everyone for the kind words. I get mistaken for a man all the time… It’s no secret. But, for the fact that their woman employee waited outside my stall for proof that I was a woman, didn’t believe me off my voice… That’s what hurt and had me shocked. I didn’t wanna stir anything up but never ever thought I’d be treated like that in a woman’s restroom in L.A., in the Staples Center. Just a bummer it went that far.”
Thankfully, the Staples Center was quick to respond to the story and called Mary to apologize and set things right. They then shared Mary’s update on the story on their own Facebook page.
I understand completely that venues want to keep their patrons safe, but hopefully this story will show other venues the sorts of things that aren’t okay to do and what doesn’t work and this sort of thing won’t happen again.
