Controversial Restaurant's Bathroom Sign Appears To Threaten Transgender People

The bathroom rights of transgender people have become the political topic du jour, spilling over from private bathroom stalls to the floor of Congress. One restaurant in Oklahoma City has made the controversial decision to put up a sign that seemingly threatens transgender customers.

It reads: "We do not have a transgender bathroom. So don't be caught in the wrong one." The Steak and Catfish Barn erected the sign in 2016, but it has just been noticed by Freedom Oklahoma, a nonprofit advocacy organization for the LGBT community.

"You've got this sign implying a threat of potential violence against somebody for going to pee," Troy Stevenson of Freedom Oklahoma told local NBC affiliate station KFOR. "That's not the Oklahoma standard. That's not what it means to be American. That's just wrong."

Restaurant owner Bob Warner explained that the sign was meant as a warning, not a threat.

"We have a lot of redneck guys that come in here," he told KFOR. "Truck drivers and everything. They're big husky guys and I said 'man alive!' If their wife or their little girl walked in that bathroom and a man followed them in there, I wouldn't have a restaurant."

Warner explained that, "as long as they're dressed appropriately," transgender people can use the facilities at his restaurant.

The anti-transgender policy at the Steak and Catfish Barn has created a call to boycott the Oklahoma restaurant: