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.

  • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Get strapped. These emboldened bully fucks will get worse if they continue to be met without resistance

          • octopus_ink@slrpnk.net
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            1 month ago

            If it were easy we wouldn’t need lawyers.

            Edit: Yeah, no one would believe this caused emotional distress. /s

            Around 8 p.m. on March 14, she wrote that she was alone in a stall in the women’s restroom when she heard a man yelling.

            “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.

            “I was the only one in there so it seemed pretty clear that he saw me enter the restroom and he assumed that I am trans because of my height,” Davis recalled. “It was terrifying and I wish no one else ever had an experience like that.”

            The man eventually left, and Davis was able to leave the restroom and return to her workstation.

            “My immediate supervisor came by and noticed that I was visibly shaken and emotional. After taking a few moments to calm myself down, I told her what had happened. I didn’t go home since it wasn’t long until my shift was done (10 p.m.),” Davis wrote. “Less than a week later, I was fired.”

            The reason given for her termination was that she did not report the incident to a salaried management employee and, therefore, created a security risk.

            “I took it to mean that I was the security risk because someone had mistaken me for trans,” Davis told the Washington Post.

            Davis said she was devastated. Because of the anti-LGBTQ+ climate in Florida, she had been planning on leaving the state. But now, she doesn’t know after losing the job.

            She appealed the termination through Walmart’s internal review process but was denied. She filed for unemployment insurance but also took her story to Facebook, where it soon went viral.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      Do… do you think…

      That a person working… at Walmart…

      … has the financial resources…

      … to sue Walmart?

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        For something like this you likely could find a lawyer to do this pro bono. Maybe even the ACLU would get involved.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          1 month 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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            1 month 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.

          • Maeve@midwest.social
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            1 month ago

            The firm that advertises themselves as "good Catholics, who had as many children as they could, beginning immediately after they got married”? Yeaaaah.

            • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Oh I’m sure they aren’t great people. They make most of their money off swindling insurance companies for huge settlement offers due to work/car injuries. That said, if you’re trying to get a huge settlement from Walmart, they are probably a good bet though. Also I know they turned down a case years ago when my dad went to them about his mother. She had surgery where there was no cartilage left in her ankle. They decided to screw her ankle to her foot essentially making it unable to move but reduce the pain. When she was in recovery they kept forcing her to get up and walk on it and she kept saying it hurt to much. Weeks into the rehab they said she wasn’t trying to put in the work. Then after a lot of arguing we finally got them to do new X-rays. Of course they found hairline fractures around the screws they placed. The insurance company/Medicaid and what not all said they wouldn’t cover any rehab time after the fractures were found because that time was used up during the period they were trying to force her to walk on a botched surgery. Morgan and Morgan turned down the case, and she reverse mortgaged her house to cover the rehab time. America at its finest

        • bss03@infosec.pub
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          1 month 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 is would be to fight WMT lawyers.

          • humorlessrepost@lemmy.world
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            1 month 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.

  • greenfire@lemmings.world
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    1 month ago

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

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    1 month 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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        1 month 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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          1 month 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.

          • KSP Atlas@sopuli.xyz
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            1 month ago

            I’ve always heard it as “trans rights are human rights”, is this a different form or does it have a different meaning?

            • Omega@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              I think it’s probably more focused on those impacted most and (unfortunately) where the most sympathy is.

              A lot of transphobia is under the guise of women’s rights (sports, bathrooms). But also, anyone can (usually) participate it men’s sports and men are generally not threatened by someone using the men’s bathroom. That doesn’t always apply. But it’s usually women who suffer the most.

              • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                Yeah every concert/event I’ve ever been to the men willingly let women use men’s bathrooms because the women’s bathroom line is 4 times longer than the men’s.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      1 month 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.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    The company does not have your best interest in mind, ever. I’m going to guess the supervisor she opened up to is going to get fired now for not reporting or something.

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      “After discriminating against you pretty harshly and illegally, we are offering you your job back and back pay as compensation. There is no guarantee that we will treat you well and there will be no repercussions for us.”

      Walmart

      • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        There is no guarantee that we will treat you well

        Walmart

        Quite the opposite in fact.

      • Lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Right? This part stuck out to me:

        She appealed the termination through Walmart’s internal review process but was denied. She filed for unemployment insurance but also took her story to Facebook, where it soon went viral.

        Walmart appeared to acknowledge the error in a statement released to the media.

        “We want our associates to feel safe and supported in their workplace, and we won’t tolerate bullying or threats of violence against our associates or customers,” Walmart spokesperson Joe Pennington said in a statement. “We’ve reviewed the situation and will be addressing it internally. We’ve also made multiple attempts to invite Ms. Davis to return to work, with back pay.”

        Oh, really, NOW you’re taking it seriously because you know you fucked up? What a fucking obviously canned corporate response. I’d be calling lawyers left and right after that, I bet more than a few would take it pro-bono.

      • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        And we pinky-swear that we will not wait three to six months and then fire for some other made up reason that you can disprove.

  • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Haven’t set foot in a Walmart in years…

    Several reasons I refuse to do business with them.

    This is just affirming some of those reasons.

    Fuck Walmart.

    🙄 🤡 🖕 🖕

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    1 month 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

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month 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.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    1 month 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.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Yep.

        Makes you wonder, after pizzagate, where they’re underground child sex dungeon is… Since they were so emphatic on pointing the finger at liberals and gays and accusing them of such a thing.

          • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            nah. They were too hyper focused on it being a basement under a restaurant.

            They arent exactly clever when confessing their crimes by accusing the other side of doing the crime. There is absolutely a building somewhere with a basement that Republicans diddle in.