Stanley Holditch
On February 2nd, at the Publix at 1584 Montgomery Highway in Hoover, Will Cyrus, who identifies as semi-trans and drag, was shopping attired in a wig and makeup when they noticed they were being followed by a woman. When Will asked the woman why she was following them, the woman asked “Are you a freak?” and began hurling slurs.
This unfortunately is not news. Homo- and Transphobia are alive and well especially in Alabama. Situations often occur in stores and the company and employees have little control over anything but how they respond.
“[The woman] started insulting my sexuality calling me slurs and at the end of all of that she rammed her buggy into me two or three times,” says Cyrus. “The police showed up and I thought they were going to help the situation, but then the manager came out and they escorted me from the store. They didn’t even acknowledge what happened to me and when I asked why I was being escorted off the officer didn’t even respond.”
Brenda Reid, Publix Media & Community Relations Manager for Alabama, said that this was an ongoing investigation and that Publix had referred the matter to Hoover Police Department, and that she could not share any comment or information about the incident.
At the time of this writing two inquiries into the matter to Hoover Police Department have gone unanswered, so unfortunately many questions remain.
After learning of the incident, I called the store directly to try and understand what happened, and I spoke with a store manager by the name of Brandon. He did confirm that the store had asked Will to leave the store, and was aware of the incident. However, instead of referencing the verbal or physical assault Cyrus underwent, he claimed that Cyrus was asked to leave due to making inappropriate comments to a child.
Cyrus vehemently denies this.
“I saw the accusations that were made and it really pissed me off,” says Cyrus. “For them to say something like that just because they look bad for the way they treated someone is sick. I don’t know what kind of person could lie about something involving abuse or something involving children. When I first saw those comments I was crying.”
If your personal bullshit alarm went off like mine did when reading that explanation there is good reason. In 2016 when North Carolina passed their controversial bathroom bill, stating that people could only use the bathroom that corresponded to their gender printed on their birth certificate, danger to children was used as a defense of the law.
The accusation of child endangerment was so common against homosexuals that it became the subject of a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1994. Of 352 children interviewed, 269 cases involved an adult where abuse was not ruled out, and of those, 2 offenders were identified as gay or lesbian. Meaning 267 were identified as heterosexual, leading to the fairly obvious conclusion that “The children in the group studied were unlikely to have been molested by identifiably gay or lesbian people.”
Meanwhile, child molestation has been rampant in notably anti-gay institutions such as the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, but I digress.
There are a few other things about this story that are not especially clear at the moment. Publix is claiming it can not comment because it is an “ongoing investigation,” but Cyrus was not given any citation by the Hoover Police. According to Cyrus, the Hoover Police did not even address the woman who assaulted her. And even if they did, Cyrus would have to be the one to press charges against the woman. Given that Hoover Police are not responding to inquiries about the incident, even to confirm or deny Publix’s assertions that this is an “ongoing investigation,” one is left to examine the relevant facts and use common sense.
Common sense tells us that a minor altercation like this would not amount to an “ongoing investigation” unless the Hoover Police are investigating the woman who assaulted Cyrus for a hate crime. While this would be a welcome bit of news, without Cyrus pressing charges it seems highly unlikely.
Given the lack of information from either Publix or the Hoover Police Department, one has to conclude that Publix is simply using the Hoover Police as a cover to avoid confronting what likely happened in their store: a person was verbally and physically assaulted specifically because of their sexuality and gender identity, and Publix’s reaction was to kick the victim out of the store and call the police on them.
Further, Publix has stated quite clearly that they consider the matter wholly within the purview of the police, despite it involving the treatment of one of their customers at the hands of one of their employees. Because we don’t have any official statement from Publix, we are again left to our own conclusions. It would seem that Publix views the matter—at least in terms of a public response or any disciplinary action towards their employees—closed.
Perhaps members of the LGBTQ community, allies, and people who simply believe that people should be allowed to be who they are without being harassed and banned, should consider Publix closed.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
ETA: Publix Apparently has a fairly long history of conflicts with the LGBTQ community:
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/five-stories-of-publix-anti-gay-accusations-10051384
