Lesbian mistaken for trans woman in woman's bathroom in Arizona

[Christinapple]

https://www.advocate.com/news/lesbian-mistaken-transgender-arizona-walmart

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/masculine-looking-cis-woman-confronted-by-cops-in-walmart-restroom-kalaya-morton-demands-justice-video/ar-AA1AdWpn

But I thought people "can always tell"?

It also led to the irony the only males in the bathroom were two male police officers who were notified by a store employee who mistakenly thought a male had entered the woman's toilets.

"In an alarming incident at a Tucson, Arizona Walmart, 19-year-old Kalaya Morton*, a Black cisgender lesbian, was confronted by two male sheriff’s deputies while using the women’s restroom, sparking outrage and a demand for accountability.
Morton, who identifies as masculine-presenting or a “stud,” recounted the humiliating encounter that occurred when a store employee erroneously assumed she was a transgender woman. The saga began innocuously enough: Morton had entered the restroom with her ex-girlfriend, who was kindly handing her a tampon— an act of friendship that, unfortunately, soon spiraled into something far more troubling. In an exclusive interview with The Advocate, Morton detailed her shock when the two deputies barged in, shining flashlights into the restroom stall.

“You have to get out of here. You have to come out. We need to talk to you.” Imagine trying to pee in peace, only to have the police storm in like it’s an episode of Cops: Restroom Edition.
“I’m still using the restroom. I’m sitting down, I’m peeing. What is the issue?,” Morton incredulously told the deputies as she sat there.
Now, while most people hope for a streamlined bathroom experience, Morton was treated more like a suspect than a bathroom user. The deputies apparently needed to crack the case of “Who Looks Like a Man in the Ladies’ Room,” a particularly absurd mystery, if you ask us."

Sweeping generalisations and stereotypes much?

I'm not even going to bother going down the 'So what does looking like a man entail? Jeans, hoodie and short hair?' route because it has been done to death.

Exactly this

He/she should have been pleased that his/her disguise had been so successful.
😉😁😁.

@Christinapple so what’s your design solution?

Stud is the term used specifically by Black masculine-presenting lesbians. It's just a cultural term like Butch. HTH

Can I just check this is correct:

A lesbian objects to males in a female space: her feelings are irrelevant
A lesbian mistaken for a male in a female space: her feelings are relevant
A lesbian saying No to ladydick: her feelings are irrelevant

The story is.. woman who dresses to look like man, mistaken for man.
yeah?

@Christinapple as pointed out by other posters women can always tell and that's because women need to be alert to the threat which is posed to them by men.
Generally speaking men don't feel threatened by women and so they don't have the same incentive to recognise male characteristics.

If you cosplay as a man I don't think you should be upset if someone assumes you are. It's like dressing in the Tesco uniform colours, going shopping in tesco and being pissed off that someone assumes you work there.

It’s happened loads, especially when I have cropped hair.

usually it’s from behind or because I’m not moving, as soon as I respond, either by speaking or by turning towards them my voice and gait make the misunderstanding obvious.

I generally just smile and say thank you to the challenger for looking out for women but I AM a GNC woman and they apologise. I make a joke so that we can laugh awkwardly and both leave the interaction feeling positive.

Once a little boy directly asked me if I was a man or a woman. It was pretty cute actually. I just said I’m a woman who prefers men’s clothing because the pockets are bigger and the shorts are longer. His mum was pretty embarrassed but it’s no big deal to me and the kid switched to asking about my tattoos instead.

It's not like she has a fake beard and the stuffed sock in her trousers though is it 🤷🏻‍♀️

This puzzled me too. Does it mean she goes out of her way to appear as masculine as possible? Dresses, walks, etc deliberately as a male might? If so, should she not be pleased that her identity was recognised and respected by the police, that her efforts to be seen as a male were working, and others perceived her as male? Being traumatised by the experience might be better framed as being validated by the experience maybe?

thanks. is this strictly an American term?

This.

I recall when this place talked about clothes just being clothes and toys just being toys. Now it's 'You were harassed in the loo? Well, look what you were wearing! It's called the ladies for a reason, try some lippy next time!'

I find it genuinely weird that the GC feminist position is that the only way to answer what it perceives as the problem of 'trans ideology' is to... reinforce 20th century western social gender performance. And when it's pointed out that this is antithetical to a lot of what even GC feminists thought 5 years ago, the answer is to say the TRAs made you do it, and that it's vital for the safety of women and girls to... harass women and girls who don't adequately perform femininity.

Nope. I know a number of UK studs.

Maybe not go around deliberately trying to look like a dude.

So the story is 'masculine woman mistakenly challenged in women's toilets'?

A shame, as I'm sure she's embarrassed, but it wouldn't happen if the men who lie about their sex stayed in their own facilities.

Wait until you read about butch lesbians. SHOCKING STUFF.

Not wanting to diminish anybody's trauma here. But one possible reading of the story is that it was an entirely manufactured situation which aligns completely to the multiple 'gotcha' posts on social media where a masc presenting woman/transman posts a selfie and asks 'do you really want me in the women's bathroom'. That would explain the carefully articulated identity AND the massive amount of time spent in the cubicle while waiting for someone to react. Oh, and the going to the media part.

Like I say, just a possibility.

There is a subset of lesbians that deliberately try to look masculine.

They still don't look like men. You can tell they are women.

You can't rule out someone accidentally making the mistake occasionally however.

It may have been upsetting for the person involved, but for the sake of argument, if they were in that subset of lesbians that wants to look masculine...

First two responses have it.

Better one woman inconvenienced that millions lose their rights.

How did whoever reported this get the police there so quickly that she was still mid pee? Did the police just happen to be hanging around right outside the toilets? Why is she talking about her ex girlfriend handing her a tampon?

I'm baffled.

Being challenged isn’t ‘harassment’.

GNC and butch women have been (occasionally or frequently, usually only momentarily) mistaken for men for hundreds of years. Sometimes we’ve even used it to our advantage (eg James Barrie).

Being challenged out of concern for women’s privacy is only offensive if one chooses to be offended. I chose to not to be offended but instead frame it as a positive thing.

It’s ok not to follow stereotypes (gendered or otherwise) but it does sometimes mean people who aren’t used to non conformity need a little longer to assess you accurately.

Maybe growing up goth/alt and having lots of tattoos has just made me generally unbothered about opinions of normies?

Many decades of non conformity has taught me that most people will judge on first sight, but also, most people will reassess that judgement after a personal interaction.

If you dress like a stereotypical weirdo (or a stereotypical man) some people will assume you are a weirdo (or a man) until you demonstrate otherwise 🤷‍♀️

That is not a GC feminist position. Firstly GC people are not a homogeneous blob, secondly Gender critical usually means critical of gender stereotypes. So someone who is GC would say women don't have to be feminine or conform to feminine stereotypes to be women. If there are issues with women being mistaken as men that can usually be cleared up pretty quickly. Yes, life isn't always kind to gender non-conforming people but women need to able to question someone they perceive as male in a female space.