Transgender Male Attacks Hobby Lobby Over Women’s Restroom Use
The dust may have settled on the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case that offered the pro-life movement a major victory, but the arts and crafts chain is still under attack.
A transgender male has targeted Hobby Lobby with discrimination charges because management would not allow him to use the women’s restroom.
“I’m just looking to be treated equally with every other female in the company—not just in the store, but in the company,” Meggan Sommerville, a 16-year-old worker in Hobby Lobby’s Aurora, Illinois, store, told Newsweek. “If they recognize me as female for certain things, why can’t they recognize me as female for everything?”
Somerville filed suit charges with the Illinois Department of Human Rights in April 2011. One charge claimed employment discrimination. The other decried discrimination in public accommodations.
Linda Harvey of Mission America told OneNewsNow she believes common sense says a woman has a right to privacy and would be concerned about safety—and the employee should be willing to accommodate that.
“The fact that he doesn’t reveals an awful lot about his self-motivation, a lack of consideration for the rights of others, and the fact that really this is not a bona fide right that should be followed up on,” she says.
