A Steak and Catfish Barn in Oklahoma has made the news. The reason? A sign. A sign that states very clearly that the restaurant does not have a transgender bathroom, it reads as follows:
“WE DO NOT HAVE A TRANSGENDER BATHROOM.
SO DON”T BE CAUGHT IN THE WRONG ONE.”
Even though the owner Bob Warner has had the sign up for ten months, it has only just come to the attention of the media and some of those in the transgender community recently.
Placing a human face on the story, Paula Schonauer, a transgender Oklahoma local, spoke with Channel 4 saying:
“I was disturbed, it was really a letdown”
She also said that the sign had an:
“…implied threat, and a threat that is very real to me.”
Imagine being told to use a bathroom you do not feel comfortable in.
There are many disturbing things about the sign, the all caps and underlined words along with the blunt statement that they do not cater for transgender people is quite confronting.
Restaurant owner Bob Warner responded to the reaction to his sign with this:
“We have a lot of redneck guys that come in here… truck drivers and everything, they are big husky guys and I said man alive if their wife or their little girl walked in that bathroom and a man followed them in there, I wouldn’t have a restaurant…. I don’t want to see nobody hurt.”
It seems Warner is concerned about trouble breaking out in his restaurant and claims he made the sign as a warning rather than a threat.
Schonauer sees this restaurant sign as a chance to teach people about issues facing the transgender community stating:
“It’s an opportunity to show sometimes what transgender people deal with on a daily basis unfortunately.”
Watch the report here:
Featured image via YouTube.
