Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille – Photo: hideoutarcadebar.com
A restaurant and bar in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, has been fined in two separate anti-transgender discrimination cases after a state commission found that it barred a trans woman from using the women’s restroom and selectively scanned patrons’ IDs in a way that targeted transgender people.
Last September, the Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission levied a $2,000 fine against Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille over an April 2023 incident in which a transgender woman was denied entry.
As reported by the Delaware News Journal, the woman, Transliance founder Kathy Carpenter Brown, said a restaurant employee told her that the bar was using an ID scanner to determine which restroom patrons should use.
Brown said she alerted Sussex Pride founder David Mariner, a gay man who also went to the Hideout that night. According to Brown, Mariner was allowed to enter without having his ID scanned, despite arriving after 9 p.m., when the bar admits only patrons aged 21 and older.
When Brown declined to allow the bouncer to scan her ID, he refused her entry and grabbed her to escort her out. Brown said she called the Delaware State Police, but officers filed no charges and referred her to the commission.
Brown later filed a complaint alleging that the bar discriminated against her based on her gender identity, in violation of the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law.
The bouncer and Hideout owner Bryan Derrickson later told the commission that Brown had tried to force her way into the bar. But the commission found Brown’s account — bolstered by Mariner’s testimony that he was admitted without being carded — more credible, as the News Journalreported last September.
Derrickson also told the News Journal that the bar’s ID-scanning policy determined which restroom a patron was supposed to use.
“When we ID you at the door coming in,” he said. “Then if you’re a male, use the men’s bathroom.”
The commission ordered Derrickson to pay $1,000 to Brown and another $1,000 to its Special Administration Fund, which supports enforcement of the state’s nondiscrimination laws and public education about them. It also ordered Hideout employees to undergo anti-discrimination and equal accommodations training.
Derrickson has appealed the decision to Superior Court, which has yet to rule.
The case was connected to an earlier complaint filed by another transgender woman, Kaitie Sorber, challenging the Hideout’s restroom and identification policies.
Before April 2023, Sorber had frequented the bar weekly for karaoke and used the women’s restroom without incident. On April 3, she showed her ID at the door and was admitted. Later, an employee asked to see her driver’s license — which she has yet to update to reflect her gender identity — and three employees confronted her when she attempted to use the women’s restroom.
On a later visit, either a manager or an owner told Sorber that she could not use the women’s restroom because her license identifies her as male. She posted about her experience on social media, writing: “The bouncers at the Hideout want me to go in the men’s room only.”
When Sorber returned to the Hideout on April 12, 2023, she was denied entry and told she had been banned, allegedly because of her social media post. She filed a complaint with the Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission, alleging that the restaurant had discriminated and retaliated against her.
In September 2025, a four-member panel of the commission held a hearing on Sorber’s complaint. Derrickson testified that he implemented the restroom restrictions after a customer complained that “a man was in the [women’s] restroom with an 8-year-old little girl.” He said he responded by requiring patrons to use the restroom that aligned with the gender listed on their driver’s license or other form of identification.
But as the News Journal reported, the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law states that gender identity is “determined by a person’s appearance, expression and behavior,” regardless of a person’s assigned sex at birth. The law does not require transgender people to present identification or use the restroom that matches the gender marker on their ID.
On July 16, 2026, a majority of the commission voted that the Hideout and Derrickson had violated Sorber’s rights by discriminating against her based on her gender identity. In its July 22 ruling, the commission wrote that the Hideout’s restroom policy “would result in patrons, whether they are transgender or not, being stopped and directed to display their identification whenever they do not fit a Hideout employee’s subjective view of masculine or feminine qualities.”
The commission also ruled that the Hideout had retaliated against Sorber by banning her over her social media criticism of the restroom policy.
“DEAL protects the right of a customer to speak out against a policy of a business that is discriminatory under DEAL itself,” the commission wrote in its ruling.
The commission subsequently ordered Derrickson to pay $15,000 — $10,000 to Sorber for the restroom incident and her subsequent denial of entry, and a $5,000 civil penalty to support education about DEAL’s prohibitions against discrimination and retaliation.
As it had in Brown’s case, the commission ordered all Hideout employees to undergo anti-discrimination and equal accommodations training. It also directed the bar to change its restroom access policy and lift its ban on Sorber.
Derrickson told the News Journal in a voicemail that he plans to appeal the decision. He also claimed that Delaware’s nondiscrimination law is “confusing” and contradicts itself regarding which restrooms transgender people may use.
“It’s tricky when our own federal government says there’s only two genders,” Derrickson reportedly said in the voicemail, citing a U.S. House of Representatives policy that bars transgender people — including Delaware U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride — from using restrooms or locker rooms in House facilities that do not correspond with their assigned sex at birth.
The Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille did not respond to a request for comment from Metro Weekly.
U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, has embraced anti-transgender messaging as she seeks a full six-year term after being appointed to her brother's seat at President Trump's urging.
Graham, who faces nine challengers, including U.S. Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry and former U.S. Rep. and Gov. Mark Sanford, recently released a 30-second ad introducing herself to voters and highlighting several issues popular with Trump and the Republican base, including abortion and opposition to transgender athletes.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, recently criticized an Indianapolis high school classroom displaying rainbow-colored banners and signs supporting LGBTQ rights, women's rights, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
On July 21, Rokita shared two photos of flags and decorations displayed inside a classroom at Perry Meridian High School. One photo shows a string of international flags hanging above a bulletin board with three larger banners, two of them rainbow-colored. One reads "Love Wins," while another states "Science is real. Black lives matter. No human is illegal, Love is love. Women's rights are human rights. Kindness is everything." The third depicts a raised fist in rainbow colors.
Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an anti-human trafficking bill into law that contains provisions repealing parts of an existing state law that allowed people with HIV to be charged with enhanced criminal penalties if they engaged in prostitution and did not disclose their status to clients.
Previously, people living with HIV could face harsher penalties than people without HIV for engaging in the same illicit activity. For example, a person without HIV who was charged with prostitution would face only a misdemeanor, while a person with HIV who engaged in the same behavior could be charged with a felony.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.