TheVitalVoice.com – by Colin Murphy – Senior Staff Writer
A St. Louis area transgender woman says she and a friend were denied entry to an area restaurant and bar last month because the doorman said that their IDs did not look like them.
On the evening of July 3, Sharon DeWitt and her friend Lisa — both transgender — along with another friend, attempted to enter the Cheshire Inn restaurant and bar in Clayton around 1 a.m. According to DeWitt, she walked through the door past the doorman and security guard only to realize that her friends weren’t behind her, as they had been asked for identification by the doorman. DeWitt alleges that the doorman denied Lisa entry because her ID showed her as a man.
“They said, this doesn’t look like you and we’re not going to let you in,” explained DeWitt. “And she would have probably just left, but I like to stand up for my rights. So I went back and I started a conversation with the guy and the guy wouldn’t let me in either.”