Same-sex couple demands answers after hotel security threw one out of bathroom thinking she was a man

Ansley Baker and Liz Victor said they were asked to show identification to prove their sex at Boston’s Liberty Hotel

Ansley Baker (left) and Liz Victor were asked to leave the Liberty Hotel in Boston over the weekend over the bathroom incident (CBS News Boston)

A woman and her girlfriend were thrown out of a luxurious five-star hotel after a security guard allegedly accused her of being a man using a female bathroom.

Ansley Baker and her partner, Liz Victor, were at the Liberty Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, attending a Kentucky Derby party on Saturday.

The couple was using the women’s restroom in the foyer when they heard a bang on the stall doors, they told CBS News Boston.

Baker said she was in one of the stalls as Victor waited around the corner near the sinks. The hotel says that security was alerted by several women that the couple was sharing a single stall. Baker and Victor deny being in the same stall.

The male security guard allegedly began urging Baker, who was born a woman and identifies as a woman, to get out of the bathroom and accused her of being a man

“All of a sudden there was banging on the door,” Baker told the local news station. “I pulled my shorts up. I hadn't even tied them. One of the security guards was there telling me to get out of the bathroom, that I was a man in the women's bathroom. I said, ‘I'm a woman.’”

The couple was allegedly kicked out of The Liberty Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, on Saturday (Google Street View)

Baker was eventually escorted out of the bathroom to what she said were other women waiting in line, saying “get him out of here” and “he’s a creep,” referring to Baker.

Tempers began to fray when the security guard allegedly asked the women for identification to check their gender in the lobby.

After handing over their ID and repeating that Baker was a woman, the couple claims they were told to leave the hotel.

“Literally, left on the sidewalk, both of us crying and shaking,” Victor told Fox News affiliate Boston 25.

The Liberty Hotel said that it is conducting an internal investigation and reached out to the couple on Monday afternoon.

“The bathroom was cleared out as two adults in one stall are not permitted. After leaving the bathroom, a member of the couple from the stall put their hands on our security team and it was then that they were removed from the premises,” the hotel said in its statement.

Victor alleged that it was blatantly obvious that only one person was in the stall.

“If that's what he thought the issue was once he opened the stall door, obviously there was only one person in there, so it should've been case closed,” she said. “Let her tie up her shorts and go about her day.”

In an updated statement Tuesday, a spokesperson for the hotel said that it had concluded its investigation and the “security officer is being suspended from their position immediately.”

All staff members will be required to complete mandatory training on inclusive practices and guest interaction protocols, it added. The hotel said it will be donating to a local LGBTQ+ organization it has partnered with on May 17, which marks International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

“The Liberty Hotel is and always will be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated,” it added.

The couple said they have alerted Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu’s office about their experience to prevent anyone else from a similar situation.