A restaurant owner's anti-transgender
bathroom policy is raising concerns in Oklahoma City.
Bob Warner, owner of the Steak and
Catfish Barn, began warning his customers 10 months ago that his
restaurant does not have “a transgender bathroom.”
“We do not have a transgender
bathroom,” a sign outside the eatery reads. “So don't be caught
in the wrong one. Thank you, Bob.”
Paula Schonauer, a transgender woman,
said that the sign carries “an implied threat” of violence.
Warner told NBC affiliate NewsChannel4
that he was just trying to protect his property and customers.
“We have a lot of redneck guys that
come in here,” Warner
said. “Truck drivers and everything. They're big husky guys
and I said, 'Man alive! If their wife or their little girl walked in
that bathroom and a man followed them in there, I wouldn't have a
restaurant.'”
“I don't want to see nobody hurt,”
he said, adding that transgender people are welcome provided they are
dressed appropriately.
Troy Stevenson with the LGBT right
group Freedom Oklahoma called the policy “just wrong.”