Trans Woman Arrested After Being Harassed by Mall Personnel For Using Women’s Restroom

August 13, 2019, Gretchen Custodio Diez a transwoman was arrested for using the female comfort room. The personnel told her that she should not enter the comfort room that is designed for the use of women since she is not one instead, she was told to go to the men’s comfort room. Diez was then dragged to the Administration security office by the said personnel and things were just beginning to escalate. While in the office according to Diez the personnel tapped her phone three times and followed it with an insult of

“ansarap sampalin ng mukha mo, bakla ka kasi.”

The whole incident inside the office was documented by Diez because she said that she felt that they were ganging up on her. Diez was brought to Quezon City Police District Station 7 handcuffed after the argument happened. According to some news she was released after the mall management dropped the unjust vexation complaint against her.

It was also reported that the personnel who harassed Diez wrote her an apology letter and said that she was just a human, that she did not mean to offend Diez, and that she is willing to learn the rights of the LGBT.

I believe that the incident could have been prevented from happening if the employees were properly educated about the policies of the city and the establishment. Like the ordinance that Quezon City passed in 2014 which is the Anti-Discrimination ordinance which aims to protect the rights of ALL people against discrimination. I believe that people should be able to express themselves freely and shall not be stopped from achieving something or entering a facility just because of how they identify themselves.

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Written by Castillo, Anfernee Jeremy B.

Source(s):

ABS-CBN News. (2019, August 13). Trans woman detained after being harassed for using ladies' toilet in QC mall. https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/13/19/trans-woman-arrestedafter-prevented-from-using-womens-comfort-room-in-qc-mall