A
female shopper at the Ross Dress for Less Department store in Mesquite,
Texas, could not believe her ears when she heard a man's voice in the
woman's dressing room.
Lisa Stickles told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth what happened at the Ross department store in Mesquite, Texas.
"I was in the dressing room, when we heard a man's voice," she said.
She said she immediately complained, but after management went inside
the dressing room and came back out, she was told the man, "was
representing himself as a woman today."
Stickles saidhe did not look like a woman.
"He was in no way dressed as a woman. He had on jeans, a t-shirt, 5
o'clock shadow, very deep voice. He was a man," she said. "(The manager)
told me that if I felt uncomfortable in the dressing room with him
there...I'd have to wait until he's finished."
Businesses are allowing customers to use bathrooms and other
facilities, like dressing rooms, based on the users' gender identity and
not the sex at birth.
A customer service representative with Ross said they do not discriminate against the transgender community.
"What about me? Or my feelings?" Sickles said.
The incident is the latest in the "bathroom battle,” which began with
the state of North Carolina taking a stand with their H.B. 2 bill that
requires people to use bathroom according to their biological sex.
Last week, President Barack Obama announced a directive that requires
all federally funded public schools to allow students to use bathroom's
matching their "gender identity."
States like Texas and Arkansas have made the decision to fight the directive.