Exclusive: Music festival employs bathroom police
Security guards were hired to police the gender of people using bathrooms and water fountains at an electronic music festival last week, it has been reported.
The festival, named ‘Skylab’, was held at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado.
An attendee at the event said he and some other men lined up to drink from the ‘women’s’ fountain because they weren’t aware that the gender segregation was occurring.
They reached the front of the line only to be “shooed away”, and told “that’s your water fountain over there” by security staff, he said.
The staff were referring to the fountain near the men’s restroom.
Photos were taken of the gendered facilities, with one showing a man standing next to women’s fountain while waiting for his female friends.
He was not allowed to drink from the same fountain as them.
“None of the men were allowed to stand within 10 feet or so of the water fountain,” the witness said.
“You can’t see the bathrooms from any angle, including from the water fountains,” he added.
“There was no reason to segregate them by gender.
“I’ve never seen or heard of gender police at bathrooms before, but especially not at water fountains.”
Who knows what might’ve happened if a transgender or non-binary person had needed to drink from one of the fountains.
Global Dance, the company which organised the event, has told PinkNews that it was “unaware of this issue.”
A spokesperson added: “We are all about inclusion of gender, race, sexuality and more at our events and never want our fans to feel targeted in any way.”
The venue has also been contacted, but has not responded.
The news follows the recent ballot in Montana which debated whether trans people should be allowed to use gender-appropriate bathrooms.
