A gay woman fired by Walmart is speaking out after she was accused of being transgender and subsequently fired.

Dani Davis, a 6’4″ cisgender woman and seven-year employee at the retail giant in Lake City, Florida, was followed into a women’s restroom by a customer and verbally assaulted.

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“My mom and I decided to put my story on social media, just to let people know or maybe warn others of the possible dangers,” Davis told Pink News. “I honestly didn’t expect it to gain as much traction as it has, as quickly as it has.” 

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Davis posted about the incident on Facebook.

“Last Friday, March 14th, I went into the woman’s restroom at my job around 8 pm. I was alone in the restroom, locked in a stall and minding my own business, when suddenly I heard a man’s voice yelling INSIDE the restroom,” Davis said.

“This man was fully IN the restroom, yelling something about [slur] (I do know that is not the politically correct term and it’s definitely not a term I use but I am quoting him.) and how he was gonna… ‘protect his wife/girlfriend from them.’

“All the while, his wife/girlfriend was yelling ‘babe get out! Baby you gotta get out of here! Your gonna get in trouble.’

“The entire time this is happening, I am in the stall. I honestly totally froze. I am not confrontational in the least and honestly…

“I didn’t know how dangerous he was.”

“I was the only one in there so it seemed pretty clear that he saw me enter the restroom and he assumed that I am trans because of my height. It was terrifying.”

Davis said she waited, cowering in the stall, until the couple left, and was relieved when the pair was nowhere to be seen as she exited the women’s room.

Visibly shaken, she reported the harrowing incident to her supervisor.

A week later, she was fired.

Davis was informed she didn’t report the assault to the proper “salaried manager.” Not doing so posed a security risk, she was told.

Her vest, badge, and work phone were confiscated, and she wasn’t provided any paperwork formalizing the termination.

Walmart is a non-union workplace. In November, the company rolled back its DEI and LGBTQ+-inclusive policies following the results of the presidential election.

“It felt absolutely awful, hurtful, confusing, and just heartbreaking,” Davis said later.

“I worked hard and tried to treat everyone kindly… and to be let go for being a security risk of all things was just them twisting the knife. Especially after what happened.”

“I was the one followed into the bathroom and I was the one who felt threatened and unsafe… so I get fired for it?” she asked in her Facebook post.

Davis was deluged with encouragement and advice about how to respond to Walmart’s shocking termination.

“Fight back!”

“Sue the hell out of them.”

“Sue sue sue!!”

“That’s sickening,” said one reply. “I’ve also been harassed as an employee in the bathroom. (I’m a trans woman, but get this–I was using the men’s) So literally just not safe anywhere from deranged and bigoted people. Take this up with a lawyer, even if you have to use a public defense lawyer for a wrongful termination. They don’t even have paperwork for why they fired you? Easy win.”

Another wrote: “Transphobia and misogyny have always been two sides of the same coin. I notice it’s a cis man that’s going into the bathroom and you that’s getting punished for it. I’m so sorry. This has always been about punishing women, cis and trans, for not fitting standards of femininity they want to enforce.”

Davis was encouraged to contact several law firms posted in the replies, along with filing a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the IWW, or Industrial Workers of the World union organizing group.

“I have lived here since I was practically a baby,” Davis said in her account. “And I feel fear towards the community that helped raise me.”

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