A Delaware bar is on the hook for $17,000 in fines after a state civil rights agency found the owner is denying transgender patrons the bathrooms of their choosing. The bar has relied on an ID scanner to determine a person’s gender.
The Delaware Division of Human and Civil Rights fined the Hideout Arcade Bar and Grille in Rehoboth Beach $15,000 for violating state law when Kaitie Sorber, a trans woman, was denied entry to the women’s lavatory in 2023. Sorber filed the complaint that led to the fine.
Download the Straight Arrow app today to get the stories that matter free from manipulation, bias or agenda.™
Point phone camera here
Delaware law permits trans individuals to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. It further forbids places with public accommodations from denying access based on a person’s believed veteran status, disability, gender identity, race or other protected classes.
Sorber wrote in the complaint that she entered Hideout in April 2023 and ordered a drink, showing her ID to verify her age. An unnamed person approached her and asked to review her ID as Sorber approached the restroom. The person said she could only use the men’s restroom.
She was later banned from Hideout after posting on social media about the bathroom policy, a person at the door told her a week later.
“Ms. Sorber also alleged that she later spoke with the owner of the Hideout, who insisted that since her driver’s license identified her as a male, she should use the bathroom that matched her license,” according to the division’s decision document.
Nationwide, debates about who can use the bathroom have reached state legislatures, resulting in several laws requiring trans individuals to use public restrooms that align with their gender at birth. In Texas, law enforcement used people’s IDs to verify their genders, and denied them entry if it didn’t match the restroom they were trying to use, according to The Texas Tribune.
The fine would be the second issued against Hideout owner Bryan Derrickson for allegedly denying a trans woman entry into the women’s bathroom. In the other case, he was fined $2,000 for denying Kathy Brown entry, according to state documents. Derrickson appealed the fine to the Delaware Superior Court on March 31. According to court records, the case is still pending.
Neither Derrickson nor the Hideout Arcade Bar and Grille responded to Straight Arrow’s request for comment. The state Human and Civil Rights Division also did not respond to Straight Arrow’s request.
Identification needed for bathrooms
Both civil rights complaints centered on Hideout’s use of an ID scanner to verify a person’s gender identity at the bathrooms. Brown noted she only went to the Hideout after hearing about Sorber’s incident and wanted to check on Sorber. The two are coworkers at the Trans Alliance, an advocacy organization that promotes civil rights for trans people.
A trans woman who worked at the Hideout told Brown that Derrickson allegedly had an “animus” towards trans people and a favorable bias towards cisgender people. The woman feared that if Derrickson knew her status, he’d fire her.
“The Hideout had no sign posted indicating a policy for scanning identification cards,” according to Brown’s case. “The Hideout had no sign posted indicating a policy that individuals were required to use the restroom associated with the sex listed on their state identification or that they could not use the restroom associated with their gender identity.”
A bouncer testified that the ID scanner at the door is used for age verification and to track down people who refuse to pay their bills. That same bouncer denied Brown entry after she refused to allow her ID to be scanned.
She later entered the bar and used the bathroom while the bouncer, a manager and law enforcement were arguing outside.
Derrickson said in a hearing about Sorber’s case he implemented the ID scanner policy after a mother complained there was a “biological male in the bathroom” at the same time as her 8-year-old daughter. That complaint was about Sorber.
“I thought, well, this is easy,” Derrickson testified. “Driver’s license, whatever they have on it, if it’s male, female or something else, we’ll go by that.”
Bar required to undergo training
The Division of Human and Civil Rights found Derrickson violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws when his business denied Sorber and Brown access to the women’s restroom.
In both cases, the panel said Derrickson’s employees must go through anti-discrimination and equal accommodations training. It clarified in Sorber’s case that training logistics and approvals shall be handled by the human and civil rights division.
For Sorber’s case, the panel increased the fine from $2,000 to $15,000 after finding Derrickson’s business retaliated against Sorber in banning her for a bad review.
The ban isn’t out of the ordinary for the Hideout as one person wrote in a Facebook review she was banned for complaining about a bartender who allegedly demanded tips. Derrickson noted in his testimony he’s banned around 200 people for causing problems.
“Respondents banned Ms. Sorber for ‘causing problems’ by making a statement opposing a policy of the business — a policy that was applied to Ms. Sorber and was found by this Panel to be a discriminatory policy,” the panel wrote in its decision.
Round out your reading
- All your questions about napping, answered.
- Trump’s $5,000 promise echoes past payouts that never materialized.
- Inside the effort to make data centers pay their share of electricity costs.
- Why did the Feds seize the ’largest Martian meteorite on Earth’?
- Photos and video show exactly where and when Trump visited Ground Zero after 9/11.
