Summary

Walmart fired Dani Davis, a 6’4" cisgender woman, after a man who mistook her for transgender verbally threatened her in a women’s restroom at a Florida store.

Davis, visibly shaken, reported the March 14 incident to her immediate supervisor but was fired for not informing salaried management, allegedly creating a “security risk.”

Davis called the firing discriminatory. After viral backlash, Walmart offered to reinstate her with back pay.

Davis, a longtime employee, is uncertain about returning, citing fears of a hostile work environment.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    So, a man went into the ladies’ restroom to assault a woman because he’s afraid of men entering the ladies’ room to assault women.

    Oh Florida… You constant shame on the republic.

    • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      This is the desired outcome. They want all women to be as gender conforming and submissive to men as possible. They know it affects women who do not fit the defined conventions of what women are meant to look like / act like / talk like etc. This is actually the main reason they want to do it.

    • missandry351@lemmings.world
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      3 months ago

      A cis man went into the ladies wc to assault a cis woman who he thought was a trans woman because he is afraid that cis men start to use the excuse of being trans women to go into the ladies wc to assault women.

      The irony in this whole thing

    • twoandtwoarefour@50501.chat
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      3 months ago

      I had to double take when I read that because it was so mind numbingly stupid. I was like wait… huh? A man berated a woman in the woman’s bathroom?

      I thought this whole bathroom thing was about protecting women from men! /s

  • Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Are people finally now realizing that transphobia affects cis people?? Even if you don’t declare yourself trans, but look any different than typically feminine or masculine, you’re a target for the folks who can “always tell”. It goes without saying that these people are unimaginably idiotic.

    • finder@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Are people finally now realizing that transphobia affects cis people??

      Same for homophobia. Sadly, some folks don’t realize until it happens to themselves or to someone they care about.

      Hopefully, these stories will help wake some people up to that reality before that happens.

      • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I am a straight man. I have lived as a straight man all my life. I have only been with women.

        Yet, I was somehow bullied for being gay in high school until I just dropped out. I mean, there was more to it than that, but that was the reason I vomited when I seen the school sign.

        • missandry351@lemmings.world
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          3 months ago

          Straight cis woman here and same (only I didn’t drop out)… everyone thought I was a lesbian and I got bullied for it, there is nothing wrong in being a lesbian but apparently it was supposed to be an insult to me???

          • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Well, I’m 40. At that time we all thought there was something to be ashamed of. As much as it pains me to know I ever felt that way, I lived in constant humiliation like I wasn’t a real man or something.

            My step dad (who I love and have a thousand reasons to defend when you look over the course of my life. He seems evil without context) also put me through it. “Daddy’s little girl” “little fag like his father”. Good lord, i type that out and he seems irredeemable, but he did redeem himself, honestly. Somehow he did. It turns out he went through the same thing, was the dumbest man I ever knew, and just wanted me to be as manly as I could be because that’s what it takes to keep from getting your head stomped in the world we come from. Believe it or not, it came from a place of love which somehow makes the trauma worse.

            I don’t know. Life is long, and it’s tremendous. I heard that in a song years ago and it stuck out to me. I mean, we know it’s short, but some things make some times so so so long.

            Is what it is. I have a drop dead gorgeous 10 out of 10 wife that any straight man would envy me for. I have kids who love me. This world is a beautiful place once you make your way, despite all of the ugly chaos.

            My step dad loved me or he wouldn’t have walked to a crappy job every day just to buy my Christmas presents. He was just misguided and abused himself, and he wasn’t smart enough to see that. The way it was, that was just the way it was for him and he wasn’t smart enough to look at it any other way.

        • finder@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I had a similar experience as yours. . .

          May the bastards that wronged us stub their toes weekly, may both sides of their pillow be warm, may their tires find every sharp object on the road.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    and yet again its not a trans woman invading a bathroom with ill intent.

    its a right wing conservative man who invaded a bathroom with ill intent.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It doesn’t really matter if she is trans or not IMO. nobody deserves to be treated like that.

      • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s the whole point. Any woman who doesn’t conform to the traditional stereotype can be targeted. This is in no way accidental.

        • OrganicMustard@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Even traditionally feminine western women. They can just point to a minor detail like a wider mandible, a bit of hair on the upper lip or arms, a more developed Adam’s apple, etc.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      True, but it shows how even non-trans people are harmed by anti-trans hysteria and fear-mongering. Just like how even men are harmed by misogynistic policies and discrimination. Trans rights are human rights.

  • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    “The voice was much louder than simply someone yelling in from the door. This man was fully IN the restroom, yelling something about” transgender women, Davis wrote.

    Davis said the man yelled he was going to “beat" them and was going to “protect his wife/girlfriend from them” while his wife or girlfriend was pleading with him to stop and leave before he got into trouble.

    Davis wrote she was scared and froze, not knowing if the man was going to physically attack her.

    So to protect cis women, he is threatening and scaring cis women.

    • Hellahunter@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      What a total douche. Also, how does Walmart come to the conclusion that firing this woman was for the best?

      Like they tried to save face and make up for it, but it was too little too late.

      Walmart has been and will always be garbage.

    • FreeHat@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I find it fascinating that guys like this usually have a wife/girlfriend who somehow excuses their behavior like WTF is in their head? Are they stupid or just as shitty as the person they’re following around?

      • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 months ago

        I think it can be a (bad) cultural thing. When I told my mom I worried my cousin’s new husband was abusive, my mom told me he was “a regular Kentucky man. They’re just like that.”

        (My other cousin confirmed her sister’s new husband was an abusive dick, but sister refused to leave him. Other cousin and I both went out of state for college, which helps break indoctrination. We were back in town for a funeral.)

  • Wahots@pawb.social
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    3 months ago

    This literally happened in the 1954 Lavender Scare. Coworkers could report you for being a “security risk” and you’d be fired because they assumed you were a lesbian.

    It’s why we have pride parades, to exercise that muscle and stamp out the fear of “otherness” in society.

    • WhoIsTheDrizzle@lemmy.world
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      Before I read about the Lavender Scare, I didn’t realize that Washington was a growing gay hub in the 40s/50s due to the expanded bureaucracy post New Deal. Also, that the anti-gay policies spread to universities and the private sector, which seemed to become the norm after that. Eventually, universities and the private sector cared more about sexual orientation than if you were previously a member of the Communist party. History is important and relevant.

  • missandry351@lemmings.world
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    3 months ago

    I want to say something about how stupid this is, but there are no words in all the 5 languages I speak fluently to describe the amount of stupid in this.

    • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      I want to figure out how stupid this is, but there are no equations in all of the high level math and physics I perform regularly and flawlessly to calculate the amount of stupid this is.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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      3 months ago

      Do… do you think…

      That a person working… at Walmart…

      … has the financial resources…

      … to sue Walmart?

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Morgan and Morgan is from Florida, they might be the largest firm in the world and take cases for improper firings. Usually they take their cases on the basis of you won’t pay anything unless you win. I’m sure they’d love that case

          • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            And they’re willing to take on big corporations - iirc they were representing Austin’s mom after he was killed in the monorail accident at Magic Kingdom 17 or 18 years ago this July (damn I can’t believe it’s been that long). She ended up settling out of court, it was really an awful situation.

        • bss03@infosec.pub
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          3 months ago

          Agreed. The misogyny is clear, even ignoring any hint of trans issues. But, I don’t know what a settlement would look like and how much effort it would be to fight WMT lawyers.

          • humorlessrepost@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Yeah, in a strictly financial sense, they already offered to make her whole. IANAL but I doubt this would be the million-dollar suit that I wish it were.

  • Cool_Name@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    It bares repeating, transphobia hurts cisgender people and transgender people.

  • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Just like Imane Khelif, the female boxer, who IS cisgender. I guess she didn’t look female enough for some people.

  • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 months ago

    “But you can always tell! They’re so obvious!”

    Not a shock that Rural Redneck Inc. has dipshits for managers, as the owners are some of the most unethical monsters ever bred in the capitalist culture of America.

  • greenfire@lemmings.world
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    3 months ago

    omg let’s go after everybody that doesn’t fit some kind of white heteronormative cookie cutter idea of humanity

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    If someone absolutely had to be fired over this, it’s her supervisor for either not telling her to let a higher up know, or being a god dam supervisor and not reporting it up the chain themselves. WTF