Gerika Mudra — an 18-year-old cis biracial lesbian high school student in Minnesota — filed a discrimination complaint against Buffalo Wild Wings, alleging that, while enjoying dinner with a friend around the Easter holiday in April, a female employee at the chicken restaurant’s Owatonna location followed her into the women’s restroom and demanded proof of her female gender.

Minnesota has no laws restricting restroom use by transgender people. However, Mudra’s lawsuit — filed with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights by the LGBTQ+-inclusive legal group Gender Justice — alleges that the employee violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act, a law that explicitly prohibits discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

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The employee reportedly pounded on a bathroom stall door and said, “This is a women’s restroom. The man needs to get out of here.” When Mudra exited the stall, she told the employee, “I am a lady,” NBC News reported. The server reportedly responded, “You have to get out now.”

In response, Mudra unzipped her hoodie to show that she has breasts. (Mudra was wearing a shirt that covered her chest.) The employee reportedly said nothing in response, but left the restroom. Buffalo Wild Wings didn’t respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

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“This wasn’t the first time something like this happened, but this is like the worst time,” Mudra said in a video created by Gender Justice. “This one… she was like, mad, screaming. She made me feel very uncomfortable.”

“After that, I just don’t like going in public bathrooms. I just hold it in,” she added. “I want to be able to use the bathroom in peace.”

Mudra’s stepmother, Shauna Otterness, said she was “enraged” upon hearing about the incident, which she called “cruel and humiliating.”

“We know Gerika was targeted because of how she looks,” Otterness said. “She didn’t do anything wrong. She just didn’t fit what that server thought a girl should look like. I was shocked and heartbroken by how many people shared similar stories after I posted about it online.”

“This shouldn’t be normal,” Otterness added. “We can do better, and we have to.”

The Minnesota Human Rights Act explicitly forbids discrimination based on gender identity, whether real or perceived. As such, if the employee’s behavior arose from the suspicion that Mudra was trans, the employee’s actions are still potentially illegal. Additionally, the law requires businesses to train staff, enforce anti-discrimination policies, and ensure their spaces are safe and welcoming to everyone, Gender Equity noted.

While Minnesota doesn’t have laws restricting trans people’s restroom use, 19 states do. Republicans nationwide have repeatedly accused trans women of “invading” women’s spaces to harm girls and women. No evidence shows that trans-inclusive restroom policies contribute to a rise in restroom-related assaults.

Gender Justice also noted that nearly one-third of LGBTQ+ people report experiencing harassment for using a bathroom, and nearly 60% of trans people have avoided using public restrooms out of fear of harassment or violence.

“The transphobia that’s happening, it really affects everyone and it’s really bad for everyone because… there’s expectations about what women should look like, what women’s bodies should look like. And if you don’t meet those stereotypes, you’re gonna be targeted,” said Jess Braverman, Gender Justice’s legal director.

Holding one’s bodily waste to avoid restrooms can result in increased urinary tract infections, constipation, the presence of blood in the urine, and even kidney disease, according to the American Medical Association. Exclusionary bathroom policies can also contribute to increased anxiety, depression, and suicidality amongst trans individuals, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“Black girls and women also face relentless policing of their appearance and identity. In schools, they are suspended at six times the rate of white girls, often for subjective reasons tied to how they dress, speak, or wear their hair,” Gender Justice added. “These same biases follow them into places like restaurants and bathrooms where they are often treated as suspicious or out of place for simply being themselves.”

Morgan Peterson, Gender Justice’s executive director, said, “A growing culture of suspicion and control is targeting trans, gender-nonconforming, and Black girls and women—anyone who doesn’t match narrow ideas of how women should look or behave. When people are harassed just for existing, none of us are truly safe.”

Cis women are regularly harassed because of transphobic restroom policies

In March, Phoenix cops burst into a women’s restroom to remove a butch lesbian, accusing her of being a man. That same month, a 6’4″ cisgender female Walmart employee was followed into a women’s restroom by a customer who verbally assaulted her because he thought she was trans.

In January, anti-trans Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) reportedly told a cis woman in a Capitol women’s restroom, “You shouldn’t be here,” before storming back into the restroom with her transphobic colleague, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), only to realize the woman wasn’t trans.

“I made an error regarding a mistaken identity,” Boebert said in a statement after the incident. “I apologized, learned a lesson, and it won’t happen again.”

In November 2022, a cisgender woman harassed another cis woman with short hair in the public restroom of the Rampart Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, because she thought she was transgender.

In May 2016, 22-year-old cis woman Aimee Toms was called “disgusting,” flicked off, and escorted out of the bathroom because a woman mistook her for being trans.

In other words, anti-trans restroom policies encourage people to harass the very women and girls that the laws purport to protect

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