Transgender Eli told to leave loo
Student demands apology after Fubar bust-up
A transgender student is demanding an apology from Fubar over claims he was told to leave the men’s toilets by a member of staff.
Eli Graham was out with friends at the nightclub in Stirling’s Maxwell Place last Wednesday when, he said, a toilet attendant confronted him for using the men’s room.
The 21-year-old claims he was challenged by the attendant when he entered the toilet.
Eli said: “I was out on Wednesday night, dancing with my friends and drinking. I went in to the toilets, used the cubicle and then went to wash my hands.
“[The attendant] asked me `Are you in the wrong toilet?’ And he kept repeating that I couldn’t be in there which made me feel very intimidated.”
Eli came out as transgender earlier this year and is a gender identity representative for the university’s students union.
“Sometimes trans people just want to use the toilet. I was very upset that I wasn’t allowed to in this person’s eyes,” said Eli who tweeted Fubar the next morning.
He said he was was contacted to arrange a meeting to discuss the incident.
Eli said: “Trans people are either faced with going into a toilet that we’re not comfortable with or a toilet where we feel more comfortable but may be harrassed.”
Following backlash on social media, Fubar responded on Twitter that the incident wasn’t “remotely cool” and that they were investigating the matter.
The nightclub’s response upset social media users who were told to “calm down for a second” and that “everything is certainly not always as it appears”.
“Fubar are being so childish, it’s unreal”, one Twitter user commented.
Another user wrote, “get [your] act together. It’s 2018, Fubar not 1980”.
Fubar’s account also used an incorrect acronym for the LGBTQ+ community, drawing further criticism.
“I thought the way they handled it was extremely poor”, Eli said. “They didn’t think it through, they panicked and made the situation worse.”
While Eli has been able to legally change his name, the process to change gender identity on legal documentation can take years.
He says that he now feels nervous about using public toilets in case it happens again.
He hopes to meet with Fubar later in the week and is looking for the nightclub to issue an apology and put in place training to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
“I want something positive to come out of it.”
However, yesterday (Tuesday) Fubar spokesperson Danielle McRorie-Smith questioned whether the incident had happened.
She said: “This is nonsense. I have spoken to staff and they have denied this happened.”
She claimed Eli declined to meet them and said she planned to exploit the story on social media.
He kept repeating that I couldn’t be in there which made me feel very intimidated