Trans activist, publisher of XQsí Magazine, and president of Coalicion Translatina, Bamby Salcedo, went to her Facebook page this morning to call out The Abbey Food & Bar in West Hollywood about an incident where she alleges one of her employees was disrespected, misgendered and pushed by The Abbey security guards.
“I know that some of you have been asking why my post yesterday about The Abbey Food & Bar – West Hollywood,” she posted on her timeline. “Briefly I want to explain… What happened is that one of our staff member was completely disrespected, misgendered and pushed by security guards. It is obvious that many other members of our community also have experience this. This type of acts and attacks are against what we stand for and what we continue to fight. It is disheartening that these types of incidents happened to our community when places that are supposed to be safe for our community and are places that are owned by members of the Gay and Lesbian community are not safe for us simply because they do not ensure that people who are part of their security are not even members of our communities, have discriminatory mentalities and have military mentalities that see people who are Trans as “the enemy”. We are not going to stand for this as it goes against the principles that we have as an organization and this is exactly what I am personally invested in dismantling. I have reached out to Natalia D.Reyes to ask for names of the security guard (s) who were involved and the name of the manager and/or owner for us to have a conversation and make sure that @theabbeyweho The Abbey Food & Bar – West Hollywood does the right thing for our community. We are not going to stand for LGB establishments to continue to push us to the side, if you are with us then you are with us all the way! #Tmeansitstime”
The post in question was an angry cryptic message that Salcedo posted on her Facebook timeline yesterday, August 12, 2018, at 3:32pm which ended with the hashtags #boycott #theabbeyweho
Bamby Salcedo accusing The Abbey Food & Bar of transphobia and calling for a boycott comes about two weeks after The Abbey and the Chapel nightclub founder David Cooley, accused Alaska Airlines of discrimination and asked his Facebook followers to boycott the airline following an incident where Cooley claimed the airline discriminated against him and his partner for being gay when they were asked to give up their seat for a straight couple. Cooley’s call for a boycott received national media attention.
In a Facebook post dated July 29, 2018, Cooley posted the following:
“I have never been so discriminated against while traveling before. I was removed from an Alaska Airlines flight # 1407 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to LAX to give preferential treatment to a straight couple. After my traveling companion and I had been seated in our assigned seats for a while, we were approached by the flight attendant and my companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a couple could sit together. I explained that we were a couple and wanted to sit together. He was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane.
I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave. We will never be flying Alaska Airlines or their recently purchased Virgin Airlines Group ever again. Thank you to Delta Air Lines for getting us home safe. If you are an #LGBT person, please spend your travel dollars with an LGBT friendly airline like Delta.”
Alaska Airlines received a perfect score of 100 percent on the 2017 Corporate Equality Index, a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. It is the third year in a row that the airline received a perfect score.
The 2017 index rated 1,043 businesses in the report, which evaluates LGBT-related policies and practices including non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits, transgender-inclusive health care benefits, competency programs, and public engagement with the LGBT community. Of those, 517 received a 100 percent positive score.
The Airline apologized to Cooley, even though several witnesses claim that Cooley’s traveling companion did not have a first class seat to begin with. 
Cooley accepted their apology. “Thank you to everyone for all the support,” he posted. “Alaska Airlines has reached out, apologized, and we are discussing making things right. I accept Alaska Airlines apology and appreciate it addressing the situation.”
Requests for comment from The Abbey’s PR firm regarding Bamby Salcedo’s call for a boycott of the Abbey for alleged trans discrimination have not been returned.
