A transgender women’s social club and Capone’s Italian American Restaurant of Peabody, Mass., agreed on February 22 to enter into mediation over a dispute involving the restaurant’s refusal to admit the group.
The Salem News reports that the group Sisters Family was prevented from entering Capone’s on January 29 when door personnel asked the eight women for photo IDs that matched their appearance.
The women had been to the restaurant several times previously, and although some in the group had been questioned about their clothing and told to use the men’s restroom, they had never been denied entrance before.
Sisters Family and Capone’s have until April 26 to reach an agreement. If they are unable to do so, Sisters Family can proceed with a formal complaint against the restaurant with Peabody’s Licensing Board, the report says.
A major problem for some trans people is being able to produce identification that matches their appearance. Different state motor vehicle departments have different requirements for gender marker change, and if those in transition are unable to meet those requirements, they are unable to get a driver’s license or state ID that corresponds to their appearance and the gender in which they are living.
However, many people — both trans and non-trans — don’t look like their driver’s license photo, and those admitting people into a restaurant or nightclub should be more concerned about age restrictions than appearance.
It should be obvious to trained personnel when a driver’s license or ID card is being used to attempt fraud, such as when an underage person tries to enter an establishment serving liquor, or when someone uses a fraudulent ID to attempt to cash a check. The women had been at the restaurant before, and it seems clear that they were not attempting any type of illegal activity.
Trans people have the right to have a night out on the town as much as anyone else does, and those whose IDs don’t match their appearance usually can’t help that fact — they are restricted by laws that, in general, restrict trans people’s movements. Passport laws have the same effect, restricting movement for trans people who are unable to meet certain qualifications to get legal paperwork changed.
The Salem News report says that, if an agreement is reached, it could include gender-sensitivity training for Capone’s personnel, which is a good idea for the employees of any business that deals with the public.
Comments
I think that, once the person's genitalia have been surgically altered, they should be permitted to get new driver's licenses and be allowed to urinate where it is now appropriate.
I disagree. There are many transsexuals who either cannot afford or do not want the bottom surgery. Requiring someone to go through a major medical hoop just to change the F to a M on the license is ridiculous, especially when that person already looks, lives, and breathes as of the sex they are requesting the document changed to. Take a MtF example, one who fits the perfect description of what the majority of Western men find to be stunningly beautiful; by your standards if she has not had SRS then she is sentenced to be thrown in with men in the bathroom. It's a rape or beating waiting to happen. How many men have outright stared at you while holding their penis in the bathroom? It's an uncomfortable feeling and outright dangerous. Birth Certificate's..maybe I'll agree with you there, on at least more requirement for changing the gender on that document, but not for a Driver's License. The ID should be congruent with your presentation, period.
Oh ok. Lemme go get a freaking psychology degree so I can open a restaurant.No problem. Even if the government wont ALLOW the "trans" person (allegedly) to OBTAIN ID, I should accept any old id they want to show me. In your dreams. Newsflash. If you are pre op then you're simply cross dressing. It's not my freaking responsibility as a RESTAURANT OWNER to get in your head. I'm a chef not a shrink. And I am REQUIRED to card. It's no wonder LGBT can't make any progress with bullshit like this going on. Keep cutting off your noses to spite your faces. No pun intended.
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