Transsexual loses discrimination battle
A transsexual banned from using a pub's ladies' has lost her legal fight to prove she was the victim of sex discrimination.
Megan Alexander, who completed a full sex-change operation six years ago was thrown out of Scaramouche in Perth, Scotland, in January 2000 after demanding the right to use the ladies' toilet.
Then owners Scottish & Newcastle said it had received complaints from other drinkers when Ms Alexander used the ladies' toilet and on the night in question manager Alan Doyle and other staff were forced to remove her after she became abusive.
Ms Alexander, formerly known as Malcolm, sued Scottish and Newcastle for £10,000, saying she had been "distressed and humiliated" by the incident.
But Sheriff Lindsay Foulis found in favour of Scottish & Newcastle and ruled that she had not changed sex in the eyes of the law as it stands.
In a written judgment, he said it was a function of parliament to define when a person born a man could be recognised in law as a woman.
The decision follows an incident in the Red Lion, in Thornby, Northamptonshire, last August when five male-to-female transsexuals were thrown out of a pub after using the ladies'.
In that case Oxford County Court judge Charles Harris QC also argued that the customers were still biologically men in law.
A poll on thePublican.com in August 2003 showed that 63 per cent of licensees in a similar position would not let transsexuals or transvestites use the ladies' loos.
