From: NewNowNext
A Connecticut woman says she was verbally assaulted in a Walmart bathroom last week because another shopper believed she was transgender.
Aimee Toms was sporting a pixie cut and a baseball cap when another woman walked up to her and declared “You’re disgusting!” and “You don’t belong here!” before giving her the finger and running out.
“After experiencing the discrimination they face firsthand, I cannot fathom the discrimination transgender people must face in a lifetime,” Toms, 22, said in a Facebook video. “Can you imagine going out every day and having people tell you you should not be who you are or that people will not accept you as who you are?”
While any such incident is inexcusable, Toms’ short hair is actually the result of her donating her locks to children with cancer.
She says what happened to her underscores how ridiculous it is to try and determine someone’s gender at a glance.
“I’ve had people call me all sorts of names for having short hair. I’ve had people call me a boy, I’ve had people call me a dyke, I’ve had people call me gay.” she explains. “I’m grateful that that woman only called me disgusting and didn’t physically attack me.”
In the post accompanying her video, Toms declared, “If it really takes me pulling up my shirt and showing someone I grew these boobs myself for them to leave me alone in a restroom, I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.”
She believes the incident happened because of all the attention—and misinformation—surrounding North Carolina’s HB2.
“This is all just a response. No one was telling these people to be scared of transgender people before. No one was telling them that they should be throwing people out of bathrooms,” she says. “As if it wasn’t scary enough for transgender people to use the bathroom before.”
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