Follow UpIt was a shock, then, in spring 2006 when a young employee came up to her in the women's room, saying nervously, "We got a report you were here... you have to go use the men's room."
Garra was stunned but decided to let it go, since the woman wasn't an employee she knew. But a few months later, when Garra was about to try on some casual wear in a private fitting room in the women's department, a middle-aged store manager came up to her and told her, "Management says that you can't be in this fitting room."
"I said, 'I've been using this particular facility for several years,'" said Garra with a deep chuckle. After that second incident, Galla called Silverman and TLDEF, and Galla v. Loehmann's was born.
Silverman was already working with Helena Stone, the 70-year-old telephone technician who had been arrested three times for using the restroom at Grand Central during her breaks from working on the station's phone system. One officer called her "a freak, a weirdo, and the ugliest woman in the world," Stone said. In October, the MTA settled with her, paying her legal fees and agreeing to mandatory staff train regarding their legal obligations toward the transgendered.
