A 24-year-old transgender man is suing the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, alleging that staff at a Staten Island pool told him he had to use the women’s locker room or leave, the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) says in a release.
According to the release, Bryan Ellicott, who was using the men’s locker room at Staten Island’s Joseph H Lyons Pool, asked to speak to a supervisor, but two other staffers allegedly repeated that he had to relocate to the women’s locker room or vacate the premises. Ellicott says the incident last summer left him feeling “harassed and humiliated,” adding that it’s an “all-too-common experience for transgender people like me when we use restrooms and locker rooms.”
“Bryan has not used public pools in New York City because he is afraid that he will suffer additional harassment and discrimination. The experience has also increased Bryan’s fear of using public restrooms, causing him to avoid them,” the TLDEF statement adds.
Ellicott wants a court to find that denying transgender people use of facilities that accord with their gender identity “constitutes discrimination in violation of the New York City Human Rights Law.”
Ellicott, who lives in Manhattan, works for the Office of Emergency Management of the City of New York.
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