Transgender woman labelled a ‘crazy Santa thing’ by Winter Wonderland security
A transgender woman felt “personally discriminated against” after security initially denied her access to a festive theme park for dressing as Ms Claus.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, encountered this at London’s Hyde Park Winter Wonderland earlier this month.
After queuing in the cold for more than 45 minutes, the woman and her friends reached security.
(Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
Her friend Daniel, who was with her at the time of the incident, called what followed a “transphobic attack.”
He said they “were stopped at the main gates by a security man who said: ‘He can’t come in dressed like that’, referring to my friend who was dressed as Ms Claus.
“When we asked him to specify why, he stated: ‘No-one is allowed to be dressed as Santa.
“‘The crazy Santa thing is not allowed here.'”
Daniel said that “we found that odd, as there were eight or nine people in the distance dressed like Santa.”
(Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
Security guidelines state that customers may be refused entry if they are in possession of certain prohibited items.
However, the official Winter Wonderland website noted that there is no dress code other than to “dress appropriately” in colder weather.
Daniel flagged this to the security guard, but he said the man “huffed and said: ‘We don’t want any of that here,’ before walking off.
“We asked for his name, and he rudely spat: ‘F*** off’.”
(Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
The woman, who said she had never before encountered problems with the way she dresses, was devastated.
“If this was my first time out as a woman, which in itself is a very hard thing to do, then I would not want to do it again,” she told PinkNews.
“Winter Wonderland itself was full of thousands of people where no-one battered an eyelid except this security man.”
She called for better education on trans issues, saying that the guard “should have been trained in diversity by his company and that should have included pronoun use.”
Though the group were granted access to the park afterwards, she said: “I felt personally discriminated against by this man.
(Getty)
“The police – who were quite frankly amazing – did not have issues with pronouns or asking me what I wanted to be called”.
In a similar case, seasoned drag queen Coral DeVille recently claimed she was denied entry to a Mariah Carey concert at the O2 Arena for being in drag.
In the US, a trans woman was banned from a theme park earlier this year for wearing a skirt.
PinkNews contracted Winter Wonderland and a spokesperson said: “We have looked into this incident and we can confirm this person was not denied access into the event as our CCTV footage shows.
“Hyde Park Winter Wonderland is a globally inclusive event.”
