An equal rights group has filed a complaint against an Adams Morgan hookah bar this week for allegedly discriminating against a transgender customer.
Lambda Legal, a legal group that specializes in LGBT rights, announced this week it filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights against Bistro 18 after Amira Gray, a transgender woman, realized her receipt listed her table’s name as “Gay Bitches.”
The receipt dated back to last August when Grey and her eight friends said they were approached by their server only one time that evening to bring over the hookah they had ordered at the bar, Lambda Legal said in a release.
“When my friends and I saw the receipt, we were humiliated and embarrassed,” Gray said according to the release. “We went in planning to enjoy Bistro 18 just like everyone else in the hookah bar that evening, but it turned into a disturbing experience.”
If both sides cannot agree to a resolution during a mediated meeting, the Washington Post reported that the Office of Human Rights would investigate the complaint, which could take up to six months. A judge at the Commission on Human Rights would then hear the case.