A transgender man was shocked when he was refused
service at a supermarket because staff didn’t believe his female ID belonged to
him.
Charlie Diesel, 19, was declined service at a Tesco in
Bedford ‘with no explanation’ after he tried to buy tobacco using his passport.
When he returned to try and question the staff, he was
told by the manager that he was refused service because the passport presented
was that of a ‘female’.
Charlie, who started living as a man around two years
ago, said the encounter last Sunday was ‘not acceptable’.
He said: ‘It just felt so insulting, this has never
happened to me before.
‘I have been through border control four times with this
passport and never had an issue, but after this it occurred to me this may be
happening to lots of people so I had to speak out.
‘In this day and age, when the transgender community are
not hiding themselves, people just cannot be allowed to discriminate.’
The 19-year-old was offered a £20 voucher as a goodwill
gesture but refused to accept it out of principle.
He said: ‘I look quite young so it didn’t bother me when
I was asked for ID and I handed over my passport, which I got two years ago but
he refused to serve me for no reason.
‘I was furious so I went over to my friend and told him
what happened. He convinced me to go back and get answers.’
The pair went to the customer service desk to explain
the situation and the duty manager was called.
Charlie said: ‘I showed her the passport and she agreed
it was legitimate but she refused to speak to the staff member in front of me
and just kept repeating “this is not discrimination”, but it clearly was.’
A spokesman said: ‘Trans people still face prejudice on
a daily basis, whether in the form of indirect discrimination, unjust and
abhorrent hate crime or the legal barriers still faced by the community.
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