A Black lesbian teen has filed a discrimination charge with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, alleging she was harassed by staff at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Owatonna, Minnesota, after trying to use the women’s restroom. Gerika Mudra, 18, says that during an April visit with a friend, a female server followed her into the restroom because of her short hair, hoodie, and non-traditional gender expression and began banging on the stall door.
According to the complaint, filed by Minnesota-based gender advocacy group Gender Justice on Mudra’s behalf, the server accused her of being a man and said, “This is a women’s restroom. The man needs to get out of here.”
The complaint states the server kept banging on the door and told Mudra, “You have to get out now.” When Mudra exited the stall, the server allegedly tried to block her from leaving until she unzipped her hoodie to show she has breasts, at which point the server left without saying anything.
“She made me feel very uncomfortable,” Mudra told NBC News. “After that, I just don’t like going in public bathrooms. I just hold it in. … I want to be able to use the bathroom in peace.”
The complaint alleges that the harassment Mudra experienced violates Minnesota’s Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and other protected characteristics. Gender Justice and the Mudra family say they filed the complaint to raise awareness about the agency’s role in protecting Minnesotans from discrimination.
“What happened to Gerika Mudra was not just wrong, it was unlawful,” Sara Jane Baldwin, senior staff attorney at Gender Justice, said in a statement. “Minnesota law protects people from exactly this kind of discrimination in public spaces. No one should be harassed, humiliated, or forced to prove themselves just to use the bathroom.”
If the Department of Human Rights determines Mudra was subjected to discrimination, it will initiate a conciliation process in the hope of reaching a settlement agreement. If conciliation fails, the department can refer the case to the Minnesota Attorney General for litigation or permit Mudra and her family to file their own lawsuit against the restaurant.
“The Minnesota Human Rights Act is clear: businesses have a legal duty to protect their customers from harassment and discrimination,” Baldwin added. “That means providing staff with training, creating clear policies, and fostering a culture that ensures every person is treated with respect and dignity. What happened to Gerika is exactly the kind of harm our laws are meant to prevent, and it’s time businesses take those responsibilities seriously.”
A spokesperson for Inspire Brands, parent company of Buffalo Wild Wings, was not immediately available to respond to an email seeking comment.
Gender Justice says Gerika’s experience shows how cisgender women who don’t conform to narrow expectations of how girls or women “should” look can become targets of anti-transgender hysteria, facing harassment and discrimination.
This year alone, there have been several reports of cisgender women harassed in public restrooms by people who assumed they were transgender, including incidents at the U.S. Capitol, a Phoenix Walmart, and a hotel restroom in Boston.
A 2017 national survey by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and National Public Radio found that nearly one in three LGBTQ people — or an LGBTQ friend or family member — had been harassed while using a public bathroom.
“This kind of gender policing is, unfortunately, nothing new,” Megan Peterson, executive director at Gender Justice, said in a statement. “And yet, in our current climate, we have to ask: What if Gerika had been a trans person? Would this story have ended differently? That’s the terrifying reality too many trans people live with every day.
“Gerika’s story sits at the intersection of anti-LGBTQ+ panic, racism, and rigid gender norms and stereotypes,” Peterson continued. “When people are harassed just for existing, none of us are truly safe.”
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On the evening of July 20, Amylah Majors and Jamaria Gaskins, a married couple from Richmond, were driving to visit Gaskins’ mother in central Virginia when they hit debris on Partlow Road in Spotsylvania County and heard a thumping sound. They pulled to the side of the road to inspect their car. Before they could get out, a man emerged from a nearby home and gave them a "thumbs up" sign.
Believing he was offering help, they were instead met by a torrent of racial and homophobic slurs and threats from him, another man, and a woman. Moments later, the trio allegedly chased the couple while brandishing guns, forcing them into a crash that ejected Majors from the vehicle.
St. Agatha Catholic School, a Portland-based Catholic school serving grades pre-K through 8, is facing backlash from some parents after rescinding an offer of enrollment to the children of a same-sex couple at the direction of the Rev. Father Luan Tran, pastor of the affiliated St. Agatha Catholic Church.
The family -- who requested anonymity out of concern for their safety -- applied to enroll their children last May, even arranging for one child to "shadow" a student for a day. They informed the school of their family situation.
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