Back in May, after a security guard at Boston’s Liberty Hotel removed a woman from a woman’s bathroom despite both she and her girlfriend repeatedly telling the guard she was indeed a woman, the hotel had conducted an investigation and released a statement reaffirming its values and promising to update its employee training program. And now, aiming to settle a discrimination complaint, the hotel is donating $10K to an LGBTQ+ group.

Reports MassLive.com:

Under a settlement agreement announced by state officials on Monday, the hotel will make a charitable donation of $10,000 to an LGBTQ group, along with other actions such as posting a non-discrimination statement in its lobby.

During a Kentucky Derby-themed event in May, two women were “stereotyped, harassed, and removed” by a hotel security guard who questioned one of the women’s gender identity in the women’s restroom, officials said. 

When the woman provided identification to prove her gender, the guard ejected the couple from the premises, officials said. 

“On behalf of the Liberty Hotel, I want to offer another apology to Ansley Baker and Liz Victor for the incident that occurred at the hotel in May of this year,” the hotel’s general manager, Mark Fischer, said in a statement.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination said on Monday that the two women were retaliated against “when the hotel issued a false statement to the media implying that the women were somehow in violation” of the hotel’s policies. 

The hotel had initially said the women were using the same stall in the restroom and that one woman put a hand on a security guard, which the woman denied. 

“This outrageous incident at the Liberty Hotel left these two women emotionally shaken, humiliated, and deeply distressed,” said MCAD’s Chairwoman Sunila Thomas George in a statement. “They were denied services, subjected to demeaning treatment in front of other patrons of the hotel, and falsely accused of actions they did not commit, which is not only degrading, but unjust according to Massachusetts civil rights law.”

An attorney for the woman said she [still] intends to proceed with a lawsuit against the hotel based on the initial statement from the hotel, The Boston Globe reported.

Read the complete MassLive.com story here.

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