Via Lambda Legal.
Adams Morgan hookah bar Bistro 18 is in some hot water after a bartender allegedly wrote an anti-gay comment on the check of a transgender customer.
Earlier today, Lambda Legal—an LGBTQ civil rights organization—filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights. The complaint alleged that Amira Gray—a transgender woman—went to Bistro 18 on August 11, 2013 with eight of her friends and, when they received the check, the words “GAY BITCHES” was printed where the customer’s name would go.
According to the complaint, the group, after seating themselves, was ignored by the serving staff while other tables were being served. Only until they approached the bar to order were they served.
At the end of the night, when Gray and her party received the receipt, one of her friends confronted the manager about the incident. The complaint alleges that the manager thought he took the offending receipt and printed them a new one, but one of Gray’s friends kept it and snapped pictures of it.
“When my friends and I saw the receipt, we were humiliated and embarrassed,” Gray said in a release. “We went in planning to enjoy Bistro 18 just like everyone else in the hookah bar that evening, but it turned into a disturbing experience. I am standing up for my friends and me because I don’t think anyone should have to go through that.”
The complaint filed by Lambda Legal this morning alleges that Bistro 18 “violated the D.C> Human Rights Act by discriminating against Gray based on her actual of perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex in a place of public accommodation.”
In a release, Lambda Legal Transgender Rights Project Director Dru Levasseur said that “discrimination against LGBT customers is a widespread problem that often goes unaddressed in businesses across the country. That this happened in Washington, D.C., where LGBT people have strong protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and personal appearance, points out the importance of ensuring existing laws are enforced.”
DCist reached out to Bistro 18 for a request for comment, but multiple calls went unanswered.
