TRANS BIAS CLAIM
Say Harlem eatery refused to serve them
group of transgender and gender nonconforming women claim they were victims of discrimination when a Harlem fast-food joint refused to serve them after a night out, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday.
Deja Smith (inset, right) and her friends Daniele (Dee) Marino, Jenovia Chase, Jahmila Adderley and Valerie Spencer say they were eager to tuck into a box of wings and chicken tenders on May 28, over Memorial Day weekend, at the Texas Chicken & Burgers on Frederick Douglass Blvd., but the cashier told them they were out of poultry.
Moments later, a white man ordered and was given a nine-piece box of tenders, Smith claims in the suit.
Spencer tried ordering the fish, but was ignored.
“Excuse me, sir, are you blatantly ignoring me to disrespect me?” Spencer asked the cashier, who just said “Yes,” according to the suit.
“I’m really frustrated with the microaggressions that people put to trans people,” Smith said Thursday at a rally in front of the Stonewall Inn in the West Village. “All of these microaggressions is what is leading to a general attitude of aggression towards trans people in the country.”
The busy cashier did not respond when Smith challenged him in an interaction caught on video, which actress Laverne Cox shared with her 3.1 million Instagram followers.
Danny Gonzalez, 21, a Texas Chicken & Burger employee who is gay, defended his colleagues.
He said one of the woman accused the workers of serving her fewer chicken tenders than another customer had received in his basket, but, he said, she received the amount that she ordered.
With a long line, the employees initially declined to change an order that had already been placed and paid for, but when the woman asked for a full refund following the argument, they obliged.
He said he would never discriminate based on gender identity.
“Never, never — because I’m gay.” Gonzalez added.
The manager of the Texas Chicken & Burgers, Gustavo Herrera, 30, was not at the restaurant at the time but, relying on his workers’ accounts, said the flap started with a simple misunderstanding.
Herrera said his employA ees later offered chicken to the group, but Smith and her friends refused.
Smith disputed those claims. “That never happened,” she said. “I really hope they really have surveillance video.”
The group was never offered chicken, said Smith, who owns a hair and makeup company with Marino.
Texas Chicken & Burgers issued a statement a day after the incident, saying “… we are confident that the situation was caused by an honest mistake made by the employee when stating that particular food items were sold out, and not the product of any intentional discriminatory treatment as is portrayed in the video.”
The lawyer for the women, Ben Crump, disagreed.
“The most basic of civil rights for all human beings is the right to self-expression,” said Crump. “In that Texas Chicken & Burger, they tried to oppress the self-expression of Deja, Mila, Dee, Jenovia, and Valerie.”